Giving up
by ilikechopstix
Summary: Dont call me Sakurachan...
1. CHAPTER 1 REDO

hey there guys. its been a LONGG Time hasnt it? well im back and im redoing my most popular story "giving up" and.. well here's the first chappy of it. thanks for reading! no flames..

AU.

RATED: T

NARUTO SHIPUUDEN

* * *

It's been a long time since the last time I wandered around Konoha like this… I can't even remember the last time I did… God it was so long ago…

Today was a rather cloudy day, the sky was a dark grey, but it showed no threatening signs of rain, all the same the wind around me was chilling to the bone and it made this day just that much more unwelcoming and uncomfortable… Sorta reminded me of my days when I used to live on the street… Geez.

I kept my hands warm in my pockets, they got sweaty in there very now and then cause I left them in there too long. I had lost count of what lap it was going around Konoha a long time ago, it kinda got tiresome counting how many times I lapped this whole damn town at the thousandth lap. By now I knew every single street, corner, and crevice in town… and the reason why I do… because this whole time… I was trying to shake this feeling of guilt… this feeling of self resentment…

Again, for the millionth time now, I spied Sakura-Chan's house out of the corner of my eye. It was really nice in comparison to the apartment building I lived in. and it looked better every time I passed by it. And every single time I passed by it, I was always tempted to walk up and knock… hope she would come and get some ramen with me… or just go for a walk with me…

By the time I knew it, I was already at her front door, my hand already into a fist ready to knock on her cherry wood door. But… like all the other times I was here in my… wandering, I hesitated… and quickly decided not to knock. She was probably still at the hospital… I hope she's all better now… maybe she's up and about already… or… maybe she's at his bedside…

"God damnit…" I spat, "Sasuke… you put up one hell of a fucking fight..."

I sighed deeply, "at least I finally did it…" I said to the empty grey sky, "He's back now… safe… and with Sakura-Chan…" I closed my eyes as I turned away from Sakura-chans' welcoming cherry door. I put the hot hand I was going to use to knock on the back of my freezing neck. It sent chills down my spine instantly as it reminded me of the fire red eyes Sasuke had when we fought a while ago.

God I will never forget that image… the intent to kill heavy and lucid in his eyes, The cursed seal covering his skin making it darker than any rain storm cloud in the darkest night, and most disgustingly those hands that protruded from his back acting as his wings… I felt like I wasn't fighting Sasuke anymore, but fighting a monster straight out of the deepest corner of hell. It was… for lack of better words… Nasty.

"Naruto…" came a familiar voice from behind me, shaking me out of my stupor.

I turned slowly to see the owner of the voice. But before I could lay my eyes on him, I knew who it was… that cool and lazy tone of his was something you never ever forget, not even for a thousand years. "Ah, Kakashi-sensei," I said in a totally fake cheerful tone, "How are ya?" I did my best to hide my gloomy mood.

It was such a stupid question to ask… of course he was still battered and bruised… "Naruto… I've passed by you this exact same spot numerous times on a couple of separate days…" he said in a heavy tone, "its not like you at all to be like this… What's the matter?" he asked me approaching me closer.

In this seemingly thousand year long walk… I had almost forgotten why I was here, walking around slumped and completely depressed. Why was I acting like this? I didn't know what else to say to him without having him ask more and more questions. And that's the last thing I needed right now… I just wanted to be left alone… "I… don't know…" I said robotically as I replaced my now cold hand for the other warm hand to warm my cold ear.

"Hmmm." He said coolly, "Is this… about Sasuke?" I was surprised at how he asked that with little hesitation and with precise accuracy… because when he asked that question, I felt something snap in the back of my mind. Damn him for reading me like one of his pervy books.

"Y-yeah, well, no… I dunno." I stuttered stupidly looking down not knowing what else to say.

He sighed again, "Naruto, its written all over your face…" he said trying to calm my troubled soul. "Listen to me… What you did… it was the only thing you could do to bring him back… and you made the right choice, he was hostile and you have nothing to feel guilty about-"

I didn't let him finish what he was going to say, "What the fuck!" I yelled surprising myself, "I nearly fucking killed him! Hell! He's still on the verge of dying! And its because of ME! It was ME! ME! ME! ME!" I yelled looked back at him.

Finally, everything was replaying itself in my mind again… the real reason as to why i'm walking around like a zombie surfaced… I can still see it. Sasuke charging at me, a Chidori in one hand... and his fucking sword in the other. Had I blocked either one of them in my current condition at the time… I would have been killed… I was willing to die trying… but that would mean I would have to break my promise with her… and that meant losing was not an option anymore… I needed to end that fight quickly…

"Maybe I was better off just letting him run away again! That way he wouldn't be breathing through a mother fucking tube!"

"Naruto!" Kakashi-sensei yelled at me firmly.

I stopped yelling then, he had that… old man tone that kinda forced you to zip it and listen to whatever he had to say.

He took a deep breathe, "Don't be so hard on yourself…" he said calmly approaching me. "If you had let him go like you said you should have… Sasuke would surely be dead by now rather than breathing through a tube right now."

What?? "What?" I questioned stupidly repeating my thoughts.

He was within arms length of me now, "if you had let him run off again with those people In hebi to hunt for his brother." He drew another breathe, "And should he have found his brother, blind by rage… he would have been killed."

Did he just call Sasuke a weakling? I don't know why, but I took that personally, "Are you telling me that he would have been killed because he was weaker than his brother?" I started getting mad again, "Sasuke is ten times stronger than his god forsaken brother!"

"So are you telling me, that you would have risked Sasuke's life on the assumption that Sasuke was stronger than Itachi? What if Itachi had gotten even more powerful… on top of that… Itachi would kill him without hesitation… you would never kill him…"

Checkmate…

He had me… fucking damn him… he was so right… Itachi was no man to mess with whether you were sane or not. And even I knew that Itachi was completely capable of become unfathomably stronger than he was when I saw him when I was only a kid. And had I let Sasuke go off with hate and rage burning his eyes, he would never have a chance against him… Damn you Kakashi-sensei… and your way with words. Its no wonder you get Yamatou-taichou to pay for all your meals.

"But…" I stammered… "I nearly did… I nearly DID kill him…" I felt warm tears welling up in my eyes. "and I did it subconsciously… I think I WANTED to kill him…" I felt a choking lump building in my throat. I swallowed hard to force it away, "If I had killed him… I don't think I would want to live anymore either… if he dies today… I'll take my own life as well..."

It was so true… sometimes I hated the guy when we were a team… but I never really wanted to kill him. But this time was different, I felt the… urge to kill him… it wasn't me… and it wasn't killing him that was going to make me commit suicide… it was the fact that… if I killed him, I would never ever be able to keep my promise… and everything I stood for would crumble down… I think I'd go insane…

I closed my eyes letting the built tears fall freely as I sobbed quietly.

I felt a heavy and warm hand on my shoulder, "Naruto, you need to calm yourself…" I could see him closing his eyes feeling helpless trying to cheer me up, "Naruto… You have done nothing wrong-"

He continued to talk… but I tuned him out… his words were just going in through one ear and out the other now… but he did say something I agreed too… I needed to calm down… I needed to finally let this guilty conscience of mine fade away… and there was only one thing I could think of to do that...

I needed to see Sasuke at the hospital, for the first time since dragging his half dead body back to Konoha I was going to see him… I hope I would find my resolve there with him… and maybe... just maybe I would feel better and agree with Kakashi-sensei that maybe I did do the right thing…

I broke away from him, and I started walking in a fast pace towards the hospital, "Sorry Kakashi-sensei… I needa go." He didn't say anything else as I broke free of his warm hand… I think he knew where I was going… and I think he agreed with me that I needed to see him. Even so, I could still feel his eyes piercing the back of my neck as I made my way to Sasuke…

It was strange, because as each step brought me closer to my supposed resolve… I felt like something terrible was going to happen very very soon...

_Room 304… Room 304… _I though quietly reminding myself which room he was in. the hallway of the hospital seemed to extend forever into a dark abyss. The clouds outside had really gotten thicker and it made it seem like it was midnight in the hospital…

"303… and… Here it is… 304" I said to myself, almost dreading the number of his room. I started to get anxious, almost scared as my hand reached out for the door knob. The knob was cold in my hand as I turned it quietly. I did my best to not disturb Sasuke who was sleeping behind the door. The door made a rebellious screech as I pushed it gently open. Suddenly, my quiet entry wasn't so quiet anymore. _Damnit… Tsunade-baachan needs to invest some money in renovating this old ass hospital… its nearly as old as she is…_ I thought to myself.

As the door screeched loudly open, I saw that the lights were on… and that Sasuke wasn't the only one in the room. I was in the room now… and there he was... Uchiha Sasuke… kept alive by machines and all these wires… and next to him… she was there…

She sat in a small chair next to his bedside, she was slouched over... her head resting on the steel armest of the bed that held Sasuke… she wore a hospital gown… no surprise there… she was a patient here as well since I brought back Sasuke… even with the ugly gown, and her unnatural slouched position… she was still beautiful… gorgeous… breathetaking… pick out any cheesy cliché, she was the very embodiment of everything eye candy should be…

I must have woken her, cause after I closed the screechy ass door, her head popped up, "Tsunade-sama?" she said instinctively. When her eyes had adjusted to see it was me, she let out a heavy sigh, "Oh... Hello Naruto." She said dryly.

She looked so tired… she needed a bed and lots of hours of sleep. "Hey Sakura-chan…" I said equally as dry. I came to her side, and she sat quietly, her hands folded nearly over her lap.

She looked on at Sasuke, terrified that if she took her eyes off of him he would be gone again… and I kept my eyes on her, almost hoping she would make eye contact with me… but she didn't.

I stood next to her quietly… still looking for some sort of response out of her. We didn't say anything for a while… the air was thick with awkwardness. I hated it so much… I wanted to say something. But I eventually just refocused onto Sasuke… he was the reason why I came anyway… I ran my eyes over all the electronics tied, taped, and stuck into him… it made me sick to my stomach to see him like this… I wanted to vomit. Eventually, the even tempered beating of his heart monitor became the soundtrack of the room.

She took a short breathe breaking the uncomfortable silence, "Naruto…" she said in her angelic voice… it was heavy with fatigue… "What happened?"

At first, her question was a mystery… but it all fell into place after a brief moment… _Of course she wouldn't remember… she was knocked out cold during the battle… and stayed that way till we got home… _I said to myself in my thoughts. _She musta spent every single moment with him when she finally regained consciousness…_

"Sakura-chan… You need to get some sleep… come on… let me take you to your room…" I said trying to avoid answering her question…

I made a grab for her hard… but she snapped her arm back in place, folding her hand nearly over the other again… "No Naruto.. I want to stay…"

How could I say no to her?

"Now please Naruto… Just tell me…"

I held my tongue for a few seconds… "Wh… What do you wanna know Sakura-chan…" I asked stupidly trying to confirm her question, even though I already knew what she meant.

"Sasuke-kun… What happened to him… What REALLY happened to him…" she asked sounding like a ghost. Her eyes never left Sasuke's face.

"I… Uhmm…" I stuttered. I was terrified to tell her everything… I was scared she would get mad at me… and that's the last thing she needed. She was so vulnerable right now, and she was so tired… the last thing I needed to do was break her already semi-broken heart. But another part of me told her that she deserved to know everything I knew… "Sakura-chan…"

"Kakashi-sensei came not too long ago…" she said interrupting me. "He told me that… it was him. That he had to use Raikiri while he was occupied in hand to hand combat with you… and that that's why he is in such critical condition…"

I was completely caught off guard… why would Kakashi-sensei say that? Did he say that to protect her from the truth? Or… did he say that to… protect me…

"I think he was lying to me…" she said bluntly. God she was so smart…

"What do you mean?" I asked foolishly. I felt like I was just playing along to humor her when all along I was the criminal mastermind behind everything… and that I was only toying with my victim even further in part of my evil and sadistic plot… I was rotten.

She sighed, "I remember Me, Sai, Yamato-taichou, Hinata and her team and especially Kakashi-sensei were in no condition to continue to fight after we battled with Hebi… and that it was you and Sasuke-kun fighting viciously while we fought our own battles… after that, I don't remember anything else."

I admired her ability to think things through…

"Plus… Kakshi-sensei is a terrible liar…" she added.

And I admired her ability to see through lies…

I grew more and more terrified now… I didn't know what to say… _should I play along with Kakashi-sensei's lie to protect myself like it was intended to? But she deserved to know the truth… but the truth would hurt her more than her physical wounds… oh god… what do I do??_

"Naruto…" she said again… "Is what Kakashi-sensei told me.. the truth?" she asked.. almost demanding for an answer…

I was still torn and deciding what to do… "Y… No…" I finally said… going with the ugly truth instead of the beautiful lie… I felt like I was going to regret it.

Finally… her gaze was broken away from Sasuke, and she lifted her perfect emerald eyes to me. I too brought my eyes to her and we crossed eyes. Her eyes were beyond beauty and any human words… I melted in her eyes. "The truth is…" here I wanted to add the pretty little lie, but it was wrong…and she deserved to know what happened that day, and I just couldn't bring myself to lie to her… "I was the one who… did this to him…" _there… I said it… cats outta the bag… what now? Will she cry? Will she yell? _

"oh…" she said quietly… she took her eyes away against my will and brought them back onto Sasuke. She looked over his grievous wounds… and saw that what I said made perfect sense… there was no way just one Raikiri from Kakashi-sensei would do the amount of damage I caused.

"I… I lost it…" I said making excuses for myself… "I… lost control of myself. I felt… _him_ take over… and… I let him… and-"

"But…" she said cutting me off… "Why would you let the demon fox take over like that? Why would you let Sasuke-kun fight such a monster?" her tone was turning into a dangerous one… it almost felt unfair… Sasuke fighting the beast? But… I LIVE with the beast…

"Sakura-chan… Please… listen to me… If I hadn't done what I did… I…" I wanted to say exactly what Kakashi-sensei told me earlier today… but… I drew blanks everywhere. Not only that… I didn't really get a chance to use it…

"Naruto… I thought you were better than that…" her voice was starting to become shaky… part of it sounded like sorrow, and the ninety nine percent rest of it sounded like bitter anger.

"Do you know why… I am… angry right now…"

I only looked at her, fighting tears in my eyes. I couldn't say anything I felt almost hypnotized by what she was about to say… like I needed to hear what she was about to say to me despite how much I didn't want to…

"Naruto… You… Let that Beast take over… I thought, you had control… I thought you would never let Sasuke fight that thing… But you did… and I was damn wrong to believe you would be better than that. I had no idea you would stoop to such a level…" her words were like venom to an infant, "How could you risk Sasuke-kun's life like that?! MY Sasuke-kun! My love! How dare you try to take him away from me!!" she was close to shrieking.

"what?"

"Do you really and honestly believe I ever liked you? Wasn't the first day we were assigned and my detest towards you a CLEAR sign?? I've NEVER enjoyed a single moment with you! Don't you even begin thinking that the times I healed you were because you were my friend… I only healed you… because I pitied you!"

"Sakura-chan…"

"Don't you dare call me Sakura-chan… Not now, not ever… again… You were always annoyed and fucking stupid… and you still are. Not only that, but now I have a REASON to hate you! You and that fucking monster inside of you… have caused NOTHING but pain!"

I couldn't say anything… I felt like my very voice was torn out of my throat… I looked back to Sasuke again, looking at all the wounds, minor and major all across his body… _Because… of me… and the monster inside me…_

"Just… get out… Never come back here again…" there was no remorse in her words… it wasn't the same Sakura-chan I knew anymore…

out of impulse… I extended my hand to her shoulder. She elbowed my hip hard with her powerful strength, I felt something snap… it felt like my hip had cracked down the middle.

"Don't fucking touch me… Or Sasuke… Or I'll… I'll…" she didn't finish her sentence… she broke into a complete and open sob…

I stood there, a broken, shattered mess both physically, and mentally… a hollow person of what I used to be. The pain in my hip was nothing compared to the pain that overflowed in my heart… it spilled all over my body… and it spread all the way to the tips of my fingers… I left without another word… I slowly opened and closed the screeching door… I limped away, but still wishing she would have broken my hip and the rest of my body till it would never heal.

Behind the now closed door, I could hear Sakura-cha… Sakura… sobbing loudly… I knew it.. she would be in pain… because of me… That's all I do… Cause pain…

I was already outside of the hospital before I knew it… I had no sense of direction… nothing made sense… I had nothing now… I lost it all…

"Fuck it…" I said to myself deciding to finally… just go home…

I walked down the center of the cold street. It had started to pour relentlessly now… I was completely wrong about it not raining… like I was wrong to let the fucking fox take over…

The rain felt heavier with each bead beating my back and neck harder than the last… it felt like nature itself hated and blamed me for unleashing such a horrifying monster, just like she did… but that was just the beginning of it all… along the sides of the streets… I could see people take shelter from the rain… that would have been normal for people experiencing weather problems… only… it was what they were whispering to each other…

My feet sloshed in the fresh mud as I limped my way down the street. It made a disgusting sloshing sound with each and every step. but that along with the sound of falling rain around me wasn't enough to drown out the sounds of the criticizing people around me… all I could hear were the same things they have been calling me my whole life… only this time it sounded much worse, much worse than when I was a kid. They clearly have heard rumors about my fight with Sasuke.

For the first time in such a long time… I wanted to cry… just fall on my knees and pray that God would spare me anymore suffering. In just one day, just about everybody had turned their shoulder against me… I held my tears… I'd been through this before… and I'm damn well not going to be around here to experience that again… so… I ran… I pathetically ran and limped. I ran from the whispers… I ran from all the accusing eyes… I ran from all the people I've hurt… I ran from Konoha… and I ran away from Sakura… and pretty soon… I wasn't anywhere near any of them… I was all alone, in a soaking wet forest with nothing but a fucking nine tailed beast… a fucking beast that had put me through nothing but misery and depression… and turned me into a monster…

_I fucking give up… there… I finally said it… I fucking give up…_


	2. OLD CH1

A/N: Wrote this one a while back, it was supposed to be my first fic to upload, but i never did cause i was nervous, but then i sent in "The Story" and got a few nice reviews, and even a few story alerts for it. thanks guys! by the way, there WILL be a few more chapters for The Story, but itll take some time, that ones..."Complex"

i looked over this one a few times, to me there doesnt seem to be many errors, if you spot any, let me know ill fix it asap.

Summary: Naruto had finally returned Sasuke to Konoha, it was a complete success this time around. but such missions require a few sacrifices, and in this case, it was nearly Sasuke's life. Naruto is wandering around Konoha, an uneasy feeling in his heart. unable to shake this feeling he talks with his sensei about it, and eventually decides to visit Sasuke at the hospital, but somebody is there and they exchange a few words on his behalf, does Naruto find resolve to his dilemma?

Rated: T for Language

* * *

It's been a while, that it really has since I walked around Konoha like this... 

It was a rather cloudy day, the sky was gray, but it showed no signs of rain, all the same it made the air chilly and unwelcome. Sort of reminded me of my days in the streets, Geez….

I kept my hands warm in my pockets, as I wandered aimlessly around Konoha a few times, passing some of the same buildings a few times over and over again, i had this feeling for a while now, I just had to shake this feeling. But I really didn't know what.

From the corner of my eye, I spied Sakura-chan's house. I wanted to knock on her door, maybe see if she wanted to get some ramen or something, but I decided against it without any debate. She was probably still at the hospital, either resting or with Sasuke…

Geez, Sasuke… you put up one hell of a fight a few months ago…

"I did it by the way…" I said to myself. I brought him back… yeah… He's back safe and sound, with Sakura-chan. But man, that fight… it will haunt me for years to come. I can still see his fire red eyes piercing my own, his dark skin and that… hands for wings shit… nasty…

"Naruto?" a familiar voice said behind me, shaking me from my personal thoughts.

I turned, but before I could see my follower, I knew who it was… that lazy tone is something you never forget. "Ah, Kakashi-sensei… how are ya?" I said trying to hide my gloomy mood.

"I've seen you pass by here three times now, its not like you to be like this… what's wrong?" he asked approaching me closer.

I didn't know what to say to him, what was wrong? Why am I acting all depressed? I really didn't know. And if I told him that, he would question more and more and bother me about it. "I... Don't know, really…" I said using one of my warmer hands to warm up my cold ear.

"Hmmm… Is it about Sasuke?" he asked without hesitation. I swear, sometimes he reads me like a book, cause when he said that, something sparked…

"Y-yeah, well, no… I dunno." I stuttered stupidly looking down.

"It is… it's written on your face." He said calming my trouble soul down a bit. "What you did, it was the only way to bring him back… and you made the right choice in doing so."

I snapped, "What the fuck!" I yelled surprising myself. "I nearly fucking killed him! Hell! He's still on the verge of death!" i yelled looking back up to him.

Maybe that's what was bothering me. A few months ago, that day that I would never forget, me and Sasuke fought… and he was winning. His sword in one hand, a Chidori in the other… if I had blocked either of them, then the other one would have gotten me…loosing was not an option, I had to end the fight quickly…

"Maybe I was better off just letting him go running off with those other guys! That way he wouldn't be breathing through a god damn tube!"

"Naruto!" he yelled firmly.

I zipped it right there, his voice had that, "Old man" tone, something you had to obey…

"Don't be so hard on yourself." He said lowering his tone. "If you let Sasuke go, he would have died."

What? "What?" I said repeating my thoughts.

"If you had let him g off with Hebi to hunt Itachi, then he would have undoubtedly found his brother. And in doing so, he would have been killed for sure."

He just called Sasuke weak, what the hell! "Are you saying he would have died because he was weak?"

"Are you saying you would have let his brother kill him?"

He had me there, I couldn't respond. he was right though, Itachi was no man to mess with, and if i had let Sasuke just go and get his revenge, rage and hate blinding him... he really would have lost...Damn Kakashi-sensei, he definitely had a way with words. "But," I stammered. "I didn't want to nearly kill him." I said choking on my words feeling a lump in my throat. "If he died from my hands, I would die there with him…"

It was the truth, sometimes I hated the guy, but I never wanted to kill him. If I did, then everything I stood for would be meaningless, and… I think I would go insane.

"Naruto… you need to calm down…" he said putting his hand on my shoulder.

Good god did he speak the truth. "Yeah, you're right… Sorry…" I turned around and walked the opposite direction breaking free of his hand without another word. I could still feel Kakashi-sensei's eyes piercing the back of my neck as I walked away. But I didn't pay to much mind to it, I was heading for the hospital. I think ill find my resolve in front of Sasuke.

-

Room 304… Room 304… I said mentally looking for the right room.

"303, and… 304… here we go." I said to myself stopping in front of the room.

I turned the doorknob slowly, I didn't want to disturb Sasuke in his sleep. The door made a rebellious screech as I opened it, damn old doors, Tsunade-baachan needs to get these fixed.

I expected to see the lights out when I walked in, but instead they were on. Weird…

I entered fully, and there, a bed with a Sasuke in it, and a Sakura-chan standing next to it, Beauty and everything, just like she always did… she turned to see me walk in she looked tired, I guess she was standing by his bedside throughout the night.

She was wearing a hospital gown, I thought she was fine to be discharged, but I was no medical ninja, so I didn't argue. She looked like she needed a few nights at the hospital anyway. "Naruto…" she said in her sweet voice.

"Hey, Sakura-chan…" I said greeting her and joining her next to Sasuke's bed.

We didn't say anything when I stood next to her, the air was thick and awkward. I focused myself on Sasuke, Tubes and all these, wires and stuff tagged to his body keeping his heartbeat in check. It disgusted me to see him like this, cause of me he was like this.

"Naruto…" Sakura-chan said finally breaking the long silence. "What happened?"

Her question was a mystery to me at first. But then it all fell into place, of course she wanted to know, she was knocked out cold during the battle, and stayed that way for a month and a half… and the rest was history, when she regained consciousness she spent all her time with this guy, almost never leaving him. i haven't really seen her since…

"What do you mean…Sakura-chan?" I said stupidly, trying to confirm her question.

"Sasuke-kun… what really happened to him?" she said not letting her eyes escape Sasuke.

"Well… umm…" I stuttered. I really didn't want to tell her, I was scared she would hate me if I told her, I was scared she might cry, I was scared she would start screaming at me… I didn't want to break her heart anymore than it already was… "Sakura-chan…he-"

"Kakashi-sensei visited me a few weeks ago. He told me he had to use Raikiri after you had kept him occupied in hand to hand combat… that's why he's in such critical condition right now…"

Why would Kakashi-sensei tell Sakura-chan that? did he tell her that lie to protect her from the truth? Or to protect me?

"I think he was lying to Me." she said shortly.

"What do you mean?"

"I remember Me, Sai, Yamato-taichou, Hinata and her team and especially Kakashi-sensei were in no condition to continue after we battled with Hebi… and that it was you and Sasuke-kun fighting viciously while we fought our own battles… after that, I don't remember anything else."

Sakura-chan… smart as always…

"Besides, Kakashi-sensei has a tendency to lie a lot…" she added

I was awed by how smart she was… I guess it was one of the things I liked about her.

I stuttered under my breath. What could I say? Should I tell her? But what if she gets angry or sad?

"Naruto… is what Kakashi-sensei told me the truth?" she said nearly demanding an answer.

I looked at her. "Y…. No…" I finally cracked, she deserved to know the truth. "Sakura-chan, it wasn't Kakashi-sensei who did this to Sasuke…"

She finally broke away from Sasuke and lifted her eyes to mine. Those beautiful green eyes, I can't put them into words how pretty they were. I melted in them… "The truth is," I wanted to add a pretty lie right there, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. She had to know… "It was me…" there I finally said it… what now? Will she cry? Will she kill me?

"Oh" she said simply and returned her pretty green eyes back to Sasuke, re-inspecting the wounds through out Sasuke's body.

"I had to Use, Fuuton Rasengan to stop him… that's why he's in this condition… that's why he's almost-"

"But, you said you wouldn't use that technique anymore… you told me you wouldn't… I even told you, when I was healing your arm, to not use it stupidly…" she said cutting me off in a different tone from before.

"Sakura-chan, listen to me, if I hadn't done it then-" I wanted to use Kakashi-sensei's logic but I didn't have a chance to.

"Do you know why I told you not to use it so much?" she said, a shaky tone in her voice.

I only looked at her, I was at a loss for words. I carefully looked at her, ready to memorize the words she was about to say to me.

"That technique…" she said sharply "I told you that, because I didn't want you to use it against Sasuke-kun…"

"What?"

"Did you really thing I cared about your damn arm?!" she said raising her voice. "Do you think I _ENJOY _healing you every God Damn time you get hurt badly?!"

"Sakura-chan…"

"Don't call me Sakura-chan… your still fucking annoying and stupid… just look at what you did to Sasuke-kun, you and that… that thing in you!" she said nearly screaming.

I stood there silently… I did what she told me, I looked at Sasuke, those tubes and wires on him… because of me… and the thing inside me?

"Because of you! I almost lost Sasuke-kun completely!" she screamed making two fists at her sides.

Because… of me?

"Get out… don't come back here again…" she said without any remorse…

I stood there, broken and destroyed… I left without another word, I closed the door behind me, behind it I could hear Sakura-cha…Sakura, crying… I knew it… she would cry… because of me…

I left the hospital shortly after… in front of the hospital, I really didn't know where to go. So I headed home…

-

I walked down the cold street, people on the sides taking cover from the falling rain… I guess I was wrong about the rain… like I was about using Rasengan…

It poured relentlessly, each bead of water hitting the back of my neck and shoulders, almost like the sky itself hated me, just like she hated me. But that wasn't all… it never is… the people… on the sides of the road. They whispered in hushed tones about me, apparently, they heard rumors about me and Sasuke… I didn't know if they were good ones or bad ones… no… they were bad ones, otherwise they wouldn't be trying to hide them from me…

I… I wanted to cry… in just one day, everybody basically turned their backs on me… that's why I didn't cry though, I knew this feeling. But what I did do, I ran… I ran from the whispers, I ran from the people, I ran from Konoha, I ran from Sakura … pretty soon, I wasn't anywhere near any of them… the only thing with me in the wet forest, a godamn beast, a fucking beast that has put me through nothing but misery and depression…

I fucking give up… there… I said it… I fucking give up…

* * *

thats it for this chapter. let me know what you think, positive flames welcome..

* * *


	3. OLD CH2

A/N:

Wow, 21 reviews in the first two days! thanks guys! especially to the few experienced writers who helped me along the way of the fanfiction. lol

i rushed this story a bit, those reviews are like a drug, once you get them you need more lol. so yeah, basically i rushed this one because not only did i want to satisfy those who wanted a second chapter, and the fact that i needed to finish this summer report i have to do, and i think it may take me a while and i need to be free of all distractions, namely the second chapter to my story lol.

for this chapter, i thought it would be unique if i switched characters in the first person pov, i wont say who it is at this point, but yeah, just read lol

sorry if there was a drop in quality or something like that. D: i did my best to make this part good in the rush i was in, i can garuntee the next chapter will be better. i hope... sorry for the lame chapter name, ill change that if you guys want. suggestions?

thanks to Mr.Lee for clarifying some things, this story does have a few characters that are ooc, but hey, thats why its called fanfiction right?

* * *

"Let go of me!" I yelled struggling to break free. 

"Sakura-san, please, be reasonable," Said one of the ANBU holding my arm. "Hokage-sama has requested your presence, please don't resist!"

I fought back as much as I could, but I was far to drained to even put up a decent fight. "I don't care! Sasuke-kun, He's still in critical condition! I need to help him!" I had already tried protesting when they first grabbed me, but it was no use.

"Please Sakura-san," Said the other ANBU member gripping my other arm firmly. "We're almost in front of Hokage-sama's office."

They had dragged me all the way from the hospital to the Hokage building. Hell, I was still wearing my Hospital gown, and nothing else but my underwear underneath. At the very least they could have let me change. So I was dragged down the street in my hospital gown having the wind blow between my legs uncomfortably, against my will, having numerous eyes glaring at my half naked self. And boy… these two guys put up a hell of a fight, they made damn sure i never got loose from their grip.

One of the ANBU members let go of my arm with one hand to knock on the door in front of us. "Hokage-sama," was all he let out as I elbowed his lower jaw with my semi-free arm.

The ANBU member I elbowed had released me completely as he fell to the floor cradling his, I think, broken jaw. I turned to swing at the other ANBU member who was struggling to keep me in his control, but before I could. A powerful hand had stopped my arm completely in its tracks in front of the flinching ANBU Member. "Hokage-sama!" squeaked the ANBU member.

"Sakura… you came… good…" she said in a low and angry tone from behind.

I finally turned around to see a towering Tsunade-sama, she looked down at me, and I looked over my shoulder up to her… it was definitely a scary moment… one to jot down in a record book or something. I haven't been this scared in a long time. "I'm going to release you, and I expect you to come in my office." She said growling at me.

I wanted to rebel so badly against that. I wanted to go back to the hospital, no… I had to go back to the hospital, I had to save Sasuke-kun from dying. "But, Tsunade-sama, Sasuke-kun is..."

"Sasuke is fine!" she roared. "Come into my office now!" she had demanded my cooperation, and whatever rebellious feelings I felt before hand, was nearly dissipated. "Now, Sakura…" she said angrily.

I nodded and followed my master into her room, passing by the ANBU member crying in pain from his apparent broken jaw… "I told you to let go…" I whispered under my breath as I walked by him. he only looked back up to me terrified and scared, If I didn't know any better, he probably shit his pants right there…

"Sakura, Sit…" she said pointing at the chair in front of her desk, treating me like a dog in training.

I sat obediently, not wanting to make her any angrier than she already was. I've seen her mad like this before during my days under her wing, but I didn't know how much angrier she could be after this stage… and personally, I didn't dare to cross that line at this point..

"Alright…" she said sitting in her comfortable chair letting a breath out. "Now that we are all cooled down,"

Cooled down? Geez, you need a trip to a glacier to cool down. I'm cool, I'm calm, it's you that still needs to cool down… I thought with the little rebellious feeling I had left.

"I need to talk to you seriously Sakura." She finished.

I let a deep breathe out myself… I'm gonna get it…

"Sakura, for the past two months… you have been sitting by Sasuke," She said folding her fingers on top of her desk."day in and day out you have, and really you haven't eaten or slept properly in days."

"But, I was helping Sasuke-kun!" I responded in protest trying to defend myself.

"By holding his hand and stroking it?" she quickly responded coldly.

She had a point though, that was essentially what I was doing with him, holding his hand. Something I've never done before and something I've always wanted to do…

"But Tsunade-sama, I was applying Medical Techniques as I was stroking his hand-" I said trying to lie.

"Sakura, stop it…" she said calmly cutting me off. "You know as much as I do, that you're in no condition to apply such techniques."

"What do you mean?" I asked stupidly. "In no condition?"

"You need to be clear of any stress and other thoughts in order to successfully apply medical ninjutsu, especially to one who is in such critical condition." She said in a matter of fact way. "And the way you have been hovering over Sasuke like a ghost these past, I don't think you'd be in that clear stare of mind to do such techniques. You of all people, should know this by now..."

Which is why I never did it… God… she is right, and it was a mistake… lying to a Sannin like this, a big mistake... I feel so pathetic.

I raised my hands to my head rubbing it, I had a terrible headache forming, all this stress was really taking its toll on me.

"Sakura, You need to rest at home, you are hereby discharged from Konoha hospital and on paid leave."

Paid leave? Is she serious?

"Ill give you a week to rest up and gather your thoughts before I let you back to work at the hospital… it still seems events two months ago are still weighing heavily on you…" she finally stood from her chair, unfolding her fingers and putting them to her sides. "Now, before you go…" she said walking to one of her bookcases. "Tell me what you did during the fight with Hebi."

"Huh?" I responded taking my hands away from my head.

"The fight against Hebi, I wanted you your part of the fight."

I folded my hands on top of my lap, "Alright." I said feeling calmer than when I had first walked into the office. Maybe a few days away from the hospital would do me some good… on paid leave no less, so it was sort of a win, win situation.

"Start from when you and the others separated, I got all that information from the other members, now all I really need is yours and Naruto's report."

I nodded and began, "Me and the two dogs that were teamed with me, had caught the sent of Sasuke-kun. We followed the scent into a small trade town, at one point, the scent was very close. But then, it quickly vanished from where the dogs had sensed it."

"So what did you do?" she said writing down in her book.

"We followed the scent to where it was strongest, and managed to follow it loosely to the other side of town." I said recalling those moments. "When we reached that part of town, we confronted, a woman…"

"A woman?"

"Yes, she was around my height, had long black hair, and had glasses. We quickly judged that she made contact with Sasuke-kun."

"Did you approach her in a hostile manner?"

"No, I approached her slowly… I wanted to ask her about Sasuke-kun but…" I dwindled a little and paused.

"Yes? What happened?"

"She threw the first punch." I said finally.

"I see…" she said continuing to write into her book.

"I dodged the first initial attack and countered with my own, of course I held back, still thinking she only attacked me in self defense. She threw another punch, and we both stopped mere inches away from each others faces. We stared each other down. From her second punch I could tell she studied some form of chakra controlling techniques, similar to that of my own for Medical ninjutsu. I knew if she hit me in the face with that, it would have been fatal."

I clenched my hands into fists as I continued my part of the story. "She mentioned Sasuke-kun in the stand off. She said something about me being with Akatsuki, and how I was a threat to Sasuke-kun. I got angry, and began to fight her fiercely. She of course, fought back just as fiercely."

"I see, I expect my student didn't loose to this woman?"

"No, It was a draw…" I said shamefully. "We somehow continued our fight through the woods destroying just about every tree in our path, and nearly to the mountains, there, we encountered my team fighting with other people, who were apparently with Sasuke-kun."

"I'm pretty sure I can piece together this part Sakura." She said interrupting me.

"What?" I asked questioningly.

"From the other reports, your story matches theirs, they too fought with their opponents near the base of a mountain, there they claimed to have seen each other fighting other foes, and your story seems to coincide with theirs."

"Oh, I see." I said, somewhat relieved that I didn't need to continue my story any further.

"Is there anything else you would like to add?" Tsunade-sama said tapping the end of her pen to her open book.

I thought about it a little bit, what else was there I wanted to add? There was something I definitely wanted to add…

"I do..." I said after a few moments. "As I battled my opponent, she managed to land a few major blows to my being, the same I did to her. Eventually, we both collapsed near the mountain side from our wounds, as I laid there, I can remember seeing Sasuke-kun, and Naruto both fighting fiercely on the face of the mountain." And that's when I remembered. "Naruto… he had used… That… Fuuton Rasengan, on Sasuke-kun… that's why he is in such critical condition." I left out the part about me passing out from my injuries, and Naruto telling this to me at the hospital a few days ago. I felt some anger boiling up inside me… how could he use that horrible technique against Sasuke-kun? How could he nearly kill him? I thought they were like brothers…

"Hmm… I see... so it was Naruto who put him in this condition..."

_"Hmm I see...?_" Is that all? You're not angry? Are you not one of the people that told him not to use that technique? I yelled in my mind as I glared at my teacher.

"Is this why you were so upset?" she said leaning back in her chair. "Were you so, concerned, for Sasuke's life? Were you so angry, at Naruto?"

Angry?

"Of course I was worried about Sasuke-kun's life! Who wouldn't? I mean even now he's still teetering on ridge of death!" I blurted out.

"Sakura, I can guarantee you, Sasuke will live, Shizune is there with him as we speak treating him."

When she said that, a sudden blanket of relief rushed over me, if it was one person I could rely on other that Tsunade-sama, it was definetly Shizune-san. She will definetly bring Sasuke back to his feet.

"Sakura, are you still angry?"

"Angry?" I asked

"Angry at Naruto I mean." She said leaning onto her desk her fingers laced together in front of her face. "I'm pretty sure your angry at him for causing this much damage to Sasuke."

I didn't hesitate to answer. "Of course I am… I told him to not use that technique, YOU told him to not use that technique…" I said making two fists again.

"If you told Sasuke to not use Chidori against Naruto, do you think he would listen to you?"

I paused and held my tongue.

"If I recall correctly, three years ago, Naruto was nearly killed by Sasuke when they both fought each other… and I remember you not being angry when Sasuke nearly Killed Naruto."

… She's right…

"Besides, I truly believe Naruto didnt want to use such a deadly technique against Sasuke. If I were in his shoes, I would do everything in my power to bring him back."

suddenly, something began ringing in the back of my head. There was something I remember from a long time ago that began to surface again... _It's a promise of a lifetime..._

"Why don't you go Talk to Naruto today, I'm sure he's feeling Guilty about all this. And I'm positive you will calm down if you do so…"

"Yeah…" I said out flatly. "Maybe I should." She really does know how to give you a guilt trip… geez…

"Well, alright, that's it… you can go back to the hospital and retrieve your belongings. Go home and rest Sakura." Tsunade-sama said to me sitting up.

"Y-yeah." I said snapping out of my thoughts, but no matter how much I tried, those words kept on repeating themselves to me over and over again... _I promise I'll bring back Sasuke, no matter what!_

As I sat up, I had this gut wrenching feeling churning in my stomache. I remembered the rainy day two days ago... "Sakura," Tsunade-sama called. I turned to face her. "Bring Naruto to me when you see him, I need a report from him as well."

Suddenly it hit me like a ton of bricks, I had snapped at Naruto that day... I didn't mention it to Tsunade-sama. I just nodded, and closed to large door behind me.

Outside in the hallway, the two ANBU were gone, I wanted to apologize to the one I elbowed earlier, but I guess now was a little too late. What was I up to again?

"Ah, that's right… too the hospital, see Sasuke-kun one more time before going home and taking a shower… and, apologizing to Naruto…"

* * *

ending notes: Alrighty, thats it for this chapter, don't expect another update anytime soon, this paper im working on is going to take a while. and again, i hope i didnt disapoint anybody with this chapter, i tried my best in the rush i was in. lates... 

as usual, i accept positve flames, and any suggestions are welcome, it may seem i dont care about them, but i actually read them and do my best to work them into my story. oh and ill try to answer as many questions as i possibly can...later...


	4. OLD CH3

update: sorry, i reuploaded it when i first posted, but i guess i didnt save my changes, or some other crap, i tweeked the story a little near the end, Sakura got off easy i suppose... but dont worry, the few suggestions i recieved have given me ideas to later chapters... sorry if you guys were dissapointed laters...

* * *

A/N: 

Sup,

Turns out, this summer assignment would be easier than i thought! actually i was secretly working on this fic during the lectures on my laptop, haha.

anyway, this chapter, is the longest one so far. i like the way it turned out, considering i winged it mostly. ch.1 and ch.2 were prewritten along time ago, and i added stuff to them, changed a few things to them, and i got the first two products pretty quickly. but this one, i mainly went on one idea, then to another. and i kinda like the way it turned out. hopefully you guys enjoy this one like i did

sorry if anybody is dissapointed in anything, suggestions welcome as always.!

Oh, and Mr.Lee did point out that it was Fuuton Rasengan no shuriken that broke Naruto's arm, but lets just say for the sake of the story, lets just call it fuuton rasengan, its already in the first two chapters anyways lol.

* * *

It's been four days since Tsunade-sama had discharged me from the hospital, and put me on paid leave from the hospital. I was finally out of those ugly hospital clothes, and into my everyday clothes, my gloves of course in my back pocket in case I ever needed them. I was no longer stressing over Sasuke-kun's life, and from what I hear, he's stabilized and being kept on constant watch from the nurses. That itself lifted a heavy weight from my shoulders, and I didn't feel bitchy all that much anymore, I felt like everything would finally go back to normal now... except for one thing. 

I went to Naruto's house two days ago, after my first day off. He wasn't home… which was a disappointment, I really wanted to apologize for snapping out at him that rainy day, I wanted to explain to him that I was under a lot of stress and this whole situation was just, overwhelming… I looked for him elsewhere, I dropped by Ichiraku thinking he would be there, he always was, but he wasn't this time… which, to me, seemed kind of odd. If he wasn't there, where else could be possibly be? Even the manager didn't know where he was, he told me he hadn't been there in some time. That lead nowhere...

After I left Ichiraku that first day, I felt a strong sudden feeling of guilt rush over me. Did Naruto take what I said to him seriously? Is he upset at me? Where did he go? Those questions bothered me over and over again throughout my break.

"No, there's no way he could have taken me seriously, he never does!" I said to myself walking down the semi-busy street, passing by the early birds of the day. "He's probably off training somewhere..."

It was sad, but it was true. I can remember constantly telling him "no" for a date, and how that no girl would want to date him anyways, but he still insisted on taking me out on a date. No matter how many times I would shoot him down, he would always play it off and try again another day, in between training, ramen and missions. Hopefully the same thing applied to the day when I snapped out at him.

Thinking back at it, I thought to myself. Was I really so… cruel that day?

Did my obsession with Sasuke-kun really affect the people around me? I need to calm down, all this thinking will stress me out again... I thought as I rubbed the sides of my forehead.

I continued my way towards Naruto's apartment, I dropped by yesterday to see if he was home, but like the previous days I checked, he wasn't. Hopefully he will be this time, its kinda early… 6 a.m. I'm sure he's not awake yet… he always sleeps in…

It sounded mean, to wake somebody up so early in the morning, but it would be my only way to catch Naruto, it would be my only chance to talk with him face to face and clear myself up. Not only that, Tsunade-sama is still waiting for his report on the Hebi incident. And seriously, I do NOT want to see her that angry ever again… it still sends chills down my spine to think how much angrier she could become than she already was. And it scares me even more, that I was just that close to pushing her to a whole new level of anger, I'm so glad I shut my big trap before it was too late...

Before I even knew it myself, I was already in front of Naruto's door, I didn't even remember my trip up the stairs to his floor. I knocked. "Naruto? Are you awake yet?" there was a short pause, which really felt like an eternity, waiting for some sort of response…. Nothing… "Naruto?" I called one more time knocking.

Maybe he just wasn't answering because he's upset… "Naruto…" I called again. "I'm…I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap out at you like that back then…" I felt stupid talking behind the door, but if it was the only way for me to apologize, than I guess it was the only thing I could do. "I was under a lot of stress at the moment," I continued, rubbing the back of my neck. "And, with Sasuke-kun barely alive at the moment, and you just walking in and telling me that it was you that did it. It was a lot to take in, and I sorta snapped…. Sorry."

In reality, I asked him to tell me what really happened. So It was really because of me that he was put into that situation. I guess Kakashi-sensei told me that lie because he was protecting Naruto from me… That Kakashi… he's a character alright… I thought to myself. He knows me to well sometimes…

"Naruto?" I called one last time. "Listen! If you're angry at me just come out here and tell me!" there was no response. "Hey Naruto! It's not like you to be like this! I'm sorry alright!" Again, there was a long silence, no response, I began to get frustrated.

Wont respond huh? A gentle knock wont get your attention huh? Well... I'll give ya something that will grab your attention... I thought, as I cocked my arm back to bang onto his door.

"Umm…" said a timid voice from behind me. I turned around to see a figure in the rising sunlight, because of the glare I couldn't clearly see who was behind me. It was a girl though, and she had a timid tone that sounded familiar. "Naruto-kun isn't home." She said shyly.

"What?"

It became clear to me that it was Hinata, that long hair and the way she stood twiddling her fingers gave her away.

"I heard you yelling into Naruto-kun's home, it sounded like he wasn't home, so I checked with Byakugan." She said looking at me this time, no longer twiddling her fingers.

"Oh, I see…" I said sighing, a little disappointed that I didn't catch Naruto in time again, and a little embarrassed… was I that loud? "So, how much did you hear?" I asked trying to change the subject.

She kind of looked too embarrassed to respond. And, like always, she seemed on the verge of fainting. She really wasn't the type to talk much I suppose.

"Umm, Sorry, I didn't mean to eavesdrop… I – I just…" she paused there and broke eye contact with me. She looked back down to her hands and twiddled her fingers again, like it was some sort of weird ritual. I guess she heard everything…

"What are you doing here anyways?" I asked trying to change the subject one more time.

"Oh… I umm… just wanted to see Naruto-kun, it has been a few months since we fought against Hebi, and I just wanted to make sure Naruto-kun was alright…" she was blushing now, her cheeks a faint pink color that resembled a cherry blossom…

That wasn't the only thing I really noticed about Hinata, she had definitely changed from the shy girl from the academy, she became a timid shy Chuunin girl that I teamed up with a month ago, and from what I remember, she can definitely hold her own against strong foes, like that huge guy with the weird curse seal like Sasuke-kun's, Without any help no less… not only that... she has... grown a lot... in a few ways that made me jealous…

"Ah, I see." I said looking back at Naruto's door, taking my mind off her chest. "So why are you here so early in the morning?"

"Oh…" She said resuming to twiddle her fingers. "I guess… the same as you, I wanted to catch Naruto-kun before he left…"

"Ah, I see…" Naruto… where are you? I thought to myself letting a deep breath out.

"Umm." She said again, "When I looked into Naruto-kun's room, I noticed something." she said catching my attention.

I looked back to her, "What did you notice?"

"Naruto-kun's room, it looks dusty."

"Heh," I chuckled a little, "Naruto isn't the hygienic type you know." I said in a playful manner.

"No, I mean, it looks like nobody has been in there for quite some time." She said no longer looking embarrassed. "The dust on the floor, it would have kicked up if he had walked around there recently, and the dust on his furniture and… bathroom… area… don't seem to have been disturbed recently." She said, blushing a bit when she mentioned the bathroom.

"What are you trying to say Hinata?"

"I don't think Naruto-kun has been home for quite some time…"

"What?"

Naruto? Not home in a while? Where could he have gone? "Well, the dust could have just settled in his room, you know? he probably left a few hours earlier to train or something."

"I guess so." responded Hinata.

I approached Hinata and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Hinata, could you check into Naruto's room one more time? See if there is anything that could tell us where he could be?"

"N-No, I couldn't…" she stammered, looking at me.

"Look, if you don't do this, then I'm willing to bet that we won't be able to find him at all…"

She paused and looked off the side, "Alright." She said momentarily. Her eyes became veiny, and powerful, she wasn't the type to do things like this, but I guess she was just that concerned for Naruto, like me…

"Hinata, what do you see?" I asked shaking her a little.

"All I'm seeing right now is the same thing as when I looked in before…Old Ramen bowls, wrappers, dust... wait…"

"What? What is it?" I asked shaking her a little bit.

"On his refrigerator, there's a… to do list…" she said, squinting a little. "It says…"

"What? What does it say?" It probably said training, and hopefully it will say where...

She released her Byakugan, her eyes returned to the normal white they were before and the veins retreated back into her head. "Well? What did it say?" I asked one more time, shaking her a little bit more.

She sort of sighed and closed her eyes as she told me. "It said, Ichiraku Ramen bonanza…"

Grr… that damn Naruto! I thought, slapping my forehead. Even when he's missing, he leaves the worst clues behind! I yelled in my mind blaming him for the weak clue we found. It would have been a decent clue, except the fact that Ichiraku Ramen doesn't open this early.

"Wait…" she said. I looked back to her, she had reactivated her Byakugan. "In the trash, there's a… Get well soon postcard."

A get well soon postcard, it must have been for Sasuke-kun, "Is it for Sasuke-kun?" I asked her.

"Yes," she said nodding. "but I'm afraid I cant read the rest, it's crumpled up to much to see other than Sasuke-kun's name." she said squinting apparently trying to read the postcard.

"Alright," I said. "we're going in."

Hinata nearly jumped when I said that. "W-wait! Looking into his room without permission is one thing, but, going in? I think that's not a good idea Sakura-chan!" she protested pulling my arm, her eyes returning to their normal state.

It was a little stupid, breaking into his house for a small thing like a postcard... but a clue's a clue... right? "Hinata, That postcard could give us an idea to where he might be."

If we read that postcard, what date it was written or bought, or whatever... At this point any clue to where he was is better than nothing.

"Sakura-chan! Wait!" she protested as I opened the door.

"It's unlocked," I said as I pushed the door open. Geez Naruto... do you _want_ to get robbed? Lock yer damn door... I thought to myself. But, I guess this time it was a lucky break in this case...

I began coughing as the door swung into Naruto's apartment. "You were right about one thing, nobody has been home for a while." I said as the dirty air from Naruto's room began to flow over us. It smelled of dust and old ramen bowls left on the ground, which I think were rotting... but... plastic doesn't rot... does it?

Hinata covered her face as she coughed from the dusty air pouring out of Naruto's apartment. I proceeded into the dusty room, most of it had cleared out as I walked in. "Hinata?"

"Y-yes?" she responded still coughing from the air.

"Where is that postcard you found?" I asked fanning the air around me to clear the way a bit. I tripped over a bowl or two, but nothing big enough to throw me off my feet...

That Naruto... he really needs to clean up his place... what if a girl comes to his house? I thought to myself off topic...

"It's in his trash can near the kitchen." She said following not too far behind, also fanning the dusty air, dodging the empty mine like ramen bowls laid across the floor.

"Here it is," I said as I picked up the crumpled piece of thick paper from the trash. I opened it up uncrumbling it as much as I could. It was a casual get well soon postcard, that folded open. It had a picture of Konoha's leaf as the cover, and when opened it had a cliché "Get well soon!" in gold letters. What really drew my attention was on the opposite side of the cliché, was some handwriting. It was definitely Naruto's the handwriting was messy and all over the place. I read it aloud "Too Sasuke, sorry I nearly killed you yesterday…"

It was short, but knowing Naruto, he probably didn't really know what to write, a decent get well letter no less… typical…. I chuckled a little when I finished reading it. "Short and straight to the point… That's Naruto alright…"

"Yesterday?" said Hinata from over my shoulder, "He must be talking about the battle between him and Sasuke-kun. That was nearly three months ago!"

"Yeah…" I said drifting from my chuckles. " He rose from that battle relatively unscathed, and since he has a quick healing ability, I'm not surprised he was up and walking the next day… So, Naruto hasn't been home for almost three months? Where could he be?" I guess he left a rather decent clue behind afterall...

"We must tell Hokage-sama, she must send out a search party for him! What if somebody came and abducted him?" she said starting to panic.

"No," I said rubbing my lower lip. "If he was abducted by Akatsuki, than there would have been some huge battle going on, and all of Konoha would know about it." I said trying to think of places where he could be.

"Akatsuki? The group of rogue ninja's? I never said anything Akatsuki." Hinata said, shaking my shoulder to get my attention.

I sighed bringing my finger away from my lip. "Hinata, what I'm about to tell you, is top secret. And nobody but you, me, and a handful of other people know about this…"

Hinata brought a hand to her mouth, readying herself for what I was about to tell her.

"Hinata, Akatsuki, is a rogue group of Ninja, and their goals are to collect the Jinchuuriki, a human container for a Bijuu, the legendary tailed beasts of the past, and extract them for their own personal uses..."

"What are you trying to say?" she asked, a bead of sweat trickling down her face.

"Are you familiar with Kyuubi?"

-

We walked quickly through the Hokage halls, heading towards Tsunade-sama's Office. My conversation with Hinata in Naruto's apartment, sort of made me feel guilty. When I told her that Naruto was the container for the nine tailed fox, her face showed nothing but pure shock. But I think it was best that she knew anyways. I had a feeling she was going to find out about it eventually.

I wanted to take her mind off of Naruto being the container for Kyuubi, so I quickly thought of something to talk about.

"Hinata?"

"Hmm? What is it?" she asked catching up to me from behind.

"Do… you like Naruto?" I asked slowing down to her side. It wasn't a good choice of a question, but I was a little curious about it myself, she always seemed sort of... red... when she was around him...

She looked away from me, and looked down, her cheeks were turning a little pink, "Naruto-kun… Naruto-kun is..." She paused, I could tell she was trying to buy some time.

"He is a very special person to me, and all I want is the best for him…" she said looking back to me, the blush she had earlier completely gone. In other words, she had feelings for him…

I felt, something… I don't know what, but when she told me that. I had this uneasy feeling in the bottom of my stomache, I didn't understand why I had this feeling.

"Sakura-chan? do _you_ like Naruto-kun?" she asked redirecting that missile of a question towards me.

"Uh, well... Naruto... Well... you know... he's, my team mate, and... He's - he's nothing more than a friend and teammate I suppose..." I said, strangely fumbling over my own words.

"Oh... I see," She said looking back to the hallway we were walking down. "I'm pretty sure, that Naruto-kun likes you very much Sakura-chan." Hinata said in a near sad tone.

"Yeah..." I flatly responded. I really wanted to change the subject now, this was getting awkward. "Hinata, I know we don't talk at all, but I'm glad we did today...friends?" I asked extending out my hand.

She gave me a bit of a strange stare, "Yeah, friends Sakura-chan." she responded quickly extending her own hand to mine, her sad tone disappearing and replaced with a happy one.

When I grabbed her hand to shake, I noticed that she had... soft hands, and her hand was gentle in grabbing my hand... I shake a hand like a guy sometimes, and my hands were rough from all the medical training... the exact opposite to hers, geez... another few more things to be jealous about...

But... I was glad to be new friends with Hinata, she was always so quiet during the academy, and still was throughout our Chuunin exams, but she was a good person. she looked nice during the academy days, and I always wanted to talk to her...

We finally approached the Hokage office, "Here we are," I knocked onto Tsunade-sama's door. "Tsunade-sama, its me Haruno Sakura. Can I come in?"

Behind the door I could hear two voices, one was Tsunade-sama's and the other was…

"Sakura?" came the voice of Tsunade-sama from behind to door. "Come in, I was just going to call for you. Come in."

I opened the door, and the second voice was. "Kakashi-sensei?"

"Oh, Hello Sakura, How are you?" he responded in the same lazy tone as always… same old Kakashi-sensei.

"Sakura, please come in, there is something I need to talk to you about." She leaned a little to the side in her chair to see a timid Hinata who had hidden herself behind me. "Hinata?"

"Oh," I said moving out of the way to expose Hinata. "She's here with me." I said.

"Very well," she said returning to her regular position in her chair. "Sakura, what is it you wanted?" she said folding her fingers in front of her face.

"It's about Naruto." I responded. Hinata finally walked into the large office, I guess she never came here often, she must have felt honored to be here...

"Hmm." She mumbled.

"Naruto is.." I said continuing

"Missing… I know…" Tsunade-sama said interrupting me.

What? How did she know, and looking over to Hinata's face, she had the same face of confusion as I did.

"Kakashi told me." she said to clarify. "He's told me he hasn't seen Naruto anywhere for a few days, and decided to report it to me."

I looked over to Kakashi-sensei, "Kakashi-sensei, whens the last time you saw Naruto?"

"hmm…" he said lazily, raising his hand to his chin to think. "I believe it was almost a week ago, during that strange rainy day." He said finally.

That was… the day I snapped at him… and uneasy feeling lump growing in my heart.

"Sakura, it seems you have something to say." said Tsunade-sama bringing me out of my thoughts, and back to the present issue.

"Oh… umm… Hinata and I, we discovered that Naruto's home hasn't been opened in nearly three months. we found a postcard from him that dates to the day after the Hebi incident, And… we have reason to believe he's gone missing." I said stupidly, restating what Tsunade-sama already figured out.

"Hmm… he hasn't been home in nearly three months… and Kakashi, you say you saw him about a week ago during that rainy day?"

"Yes." nodded Kakashi-sensei.

Tsunade-sama lowered her head closer to her folded hands, she was thinking hard. I could tell, she was always like that when she was. I looked back over to Hinata, and she looked back at me, wondering what Tsunade-sama was thinking about.

"Hmm… strange…" she finally said. "Why would Naruto just, not come home in three months like that? Clearly, he wasn't taken against his will, because Kakashi saw him no less than a week ago, and we would have known about a forced kidnapping. That Postcard..."

"I-It was a get well soon card." Hinata said shyly, trying to be useful.

"He must have had something troubling him hat day, and throughout those three months."

I gulped down the lump forming in my throat.

"Um, I believe I told you he was in a troubled mood when I last saw him Hokage-sama." interrupted Kakshi-sensei.

"Quiet…"

"Yes." responded an obedient Kakashi-sensei. It was funny how somebody like him would be quieted down so easily with just one word... I contained my laugher and saved it for some other time.

"Im going to assume the letter was for Sasuke, from his recent battle with him. It must have bothered him, and he must have not gone home to clear his mind."

"That does explain why I saw him wandering around Konoha last time I saw him…" mumbled Kakashi-sensei rubbing his chin.

So he wandered around Konoha for almost three months? where did he sleep and eat?

"Yes…" Tsunade-sama said agreeing.

Suddenly, and image of the last time I saw him flashed before me, something dropped in my heart. He didn't... Run away... did he?

"Sakura. Did you see Naruto around the time Kakashi did?" Tsunade-sama asked, almost as If she were on queue.

Suddenly all eyes in the room focused onto me. And I had this uneasy feeling in my gut. I looked over at Hinata, She probably remembers the part about me snapping out at Naruto from when I was in front of his door...

She signaled me to turn back around and talk, obviously wondering the events of that day. I turned and faced Kakashi-sensei and Tsunade-sama. "Yes." I responded.

But before I could speak. Shizune-san had barged into the room. In her hands was a small box.

"Tsunade-sama!" she nearly yelled as she walked in.

"Shizune! Were sort of busy here, don't you think all those damn documents can wait?" Tsunade-sama said frustrated.

"No, that's not it!" she said shaking her head. "One of our ANBU patrols came across this." She said opening the small black box to her. It was out of my sight, so I couldn't really tell what it was.

"Who's is this?" Tsunade-sama said standing up to retrieve the object. "And why is it moist?"

"ANBU reports it was found in a dense part of the forest near the western entrance gate. We believe that one of our own might have been abducted, and they must have dropped this as they were being taken away."

Tsunade-sama pulled the object out of the box to study it. I circled around Shizune-san, Hinata right behind me, to get a clear look at the object. Kakashi-sensei doing to same.

A Forehead protector?

"Can we find out whose Forehead protector this is?"

"I'm afraid not until the forensics department gets a good look at it, and they will take a while to find out who it is, and by then, whoever was abducted would have fallen to the enemy's torture." Shizune-san said as she lowered her head in disappointment.

I looked closer at the forehead protector. There was something about it, it looked familiar. Extra long black cloth… and it was moist why? … wait…

"Its Naruto's!" I blurted out.

All eyes again were focused onto me. "I think this might be Naruto's." I said in a lower tone this time.

"What makes you say that?" asked Tsunade-sama.

I hesitated, nearly afraid to tell them. I looked over at Hinata, she signaled with her head for me to go on and tell them… I took a deep breathe.

"That rainy day, nearly a week ago… Naruto came to see Sasuke-kun… I was there that day." I said readying myself for the next part. "As he was there, I had asked him what the real reasons for Sasuke-kun's wounds were."

Kakashi-sensei sighed heavily, understanding where this was going already.

"Him being him, he fumbled with his words a bit, but eventually… he told me it was because of him… and when I heard what I heard, I sort of… lashed out… at Naruto."

Shizune-san gasped a little as she listened to me, Tsunade-sama just closing her eyes in disgust at me. "What did you tell him?" she asked flatly.

I paused, I really didn't want to tell her, I didn't want to repeat the words I said to him that day. Should I just lie?

"Sakura! What did you tell him?" she demanded.

"I…said things… like how I told him to not use Fuuton Rasengan because I didn't want him to use it on Sasuke-kun… how I disliked healing his wounds after his battles, and I basically called him a monster, and blamed him for everything that happened to Sasuke-kun…and I told him to go away…" I felt bitterness consume my body as I spoke. The sudden reality of the words I saidhitting me.

A heavy silence fell over the office, I closed my eyes, I wanted to disappear. Looking back at it… I can remember the look of his face… it was the face of a… broken heart… I told him not to call me Sakura-chan… I told him to go away… and…he did…

Shizune finally broke the uncomfortable silence. "Then… he must have dropped his forehead protector in that dense part of the woods during the rain… that could explain why it is still moist…"

A curtain of silence covered the room, I thought everything would go back to normal earlier today... And in an instant, it all goes to hell.

I felt like crying in the silence, I fought hard not to let a single tear escape.

"Send out three small squads of ANBU to search for him… I want a report from them if they find anything immediately, understand?" Tsunade-sama said to Shizune, breaking the long and heavy silence.

Shizune didn't say another word, she hastily left the office to carry out her orders.

"Kakashi, I want you to send out your search dogs and find whatever trace of him you can with them…"

"Yes." He said lowly in a shamed tone, and with a slight explosion, I knew he vanished to carry out his order.

"Hinata, I want you to gather as many Hyuuga clan members as you can, and I want you to search in and around Konoha. He may still be In or around Konoha somewhere..."

Hinata was silent, I guess she was staring at the back on my neck as I stood there pathetically. All my guilt built even more because Hinata, who I had just become friends with, seemed to hate me for what I said to him… I was assuming the look she was giving me was a disgusted look.

"Hinata?" Tsunade-sama called.

Hinata broke the silence. "Yes, I'm on my way." She said leaving the office, I could hear her footsteps fading away behind me.

It was just me and Tsunade-sama, I felt rotten, I wanted to disappear more than I ever did before. I clenched both of my arms. Before I knew it, I was crying. Tsunade-sama's look was more than enough to send me over the edge.

"Sakura…"

My common sense told me to respond, but a large lump in my throat refused to let me respond. My knees were ready to give out, I thought about what I said to Naruto even more, it was really… the most rotten thing anybody could say to someone especially Naruto… and yet… I said it… God, I'm such a bitch…

"Sakura…" She called one more time, except, her voice went from behind her desk, to in front of me. My eyes were still shut tight and some tears escaping the sides of them… "Sakura, look at me…" she said.

"No…" I said my voice cracking and breaking. "I'm such an idiot, I'm rotten… I should just…"

I stopped mid-sentence, the sudden jerking of my head and a pain on my cheek halting my flow of words. Tsunade-sama disciplined me... I deserved it... I only wish that she hadnt held back in the slap...

I broke out into an immediate sob, even though I deserved that slap, it sent me overboard...

"Sakura…" Tsunade-sama said calmly putting both her hands onto my shoulders. "Crying and blaming yourself won't bring him back you know…"

I finally opened my eyes to see a Tsunade-sama, just mere inches from my face.

"Sakura, I'm going to assign you to a small group of your academy classmates, when I do, I want you and your squad to search for Naruto, there is no jurisdiction, I'll send for the other hidden villages to search for him as well." Her eyes showed true compassion and worry for Naruto… of course she couldn't just drop everything to look for him herself, she was the Hokage, she has to run the village. "We must find him before Akatsuki does, otherwise, the whole world may be in trouble." It was a good reason for a large search for one person… but that wasn't all, she really cared for Naruto's safety I could see it in her eyes… they were... motherly.

"Alright," I finally said wiping some of the tears from my face. "I'm sorry Tsunade-sama."

"Don't tell me that… Just go and find him, and you tell him that..."

"Yes." I nodded. I figured I got off easy, a slap to the face... I _should _have gotten something worse...

She released me from her hands, and I left the office quietly without another word, a slight stinging pain left on my cheek. All I could really do now, was wait for Tsunade-sama to organize a team with me in it, and send us out… until then… I don't know….

The events of that day replayed over and over again… I watched myself snap, I watched myself talking to Naruto in rage and stress... and that face… that broken face… it was the worst… he was truly hurt… no wonder he ran away…I should be beaten for what I did...

I guess I should drop by the hospital, drop by Sasuke-kun and tell him what's going on… even though he's still unconscious…

I was already outside as all these thoughts whirled around my mind… it was a clear blue sky and a shiny sun, some clouds… but mostly clear… I watched some of the clouds pass by…strange, such a calm and beautiful day, but it is filled with such drama...

I rubbed the side of my cheek, finally feeling the full impact of how hard it really was...That feeling I had in the hallway as I spoke with Hinata… what does Naruto mean to me? I still love Sasuke-kun… what does it mean?

* * *

end of this one, the last part of this chapter was a tough one to work with, catching Hinata's character was especially hard because she never shows up in the freaking series lol.the ending of this chapter was also kinda hard, i wanted to add a few things here and there, but oh well...i already spent to much time on this one. i hope it all makes sense. later... 

as usual, i welcome positive flames, suggestions, and i will do my best to answer any questions i can!


	5. OLD CH4

A/N:

Oh man, im really nervous for this chapter. im not to confident in it either... but whatever... its just a story right?

this was originally supposed to be chapter 2. and it had a lot of snags when i first wrote it, and when i came back to it, i figured, aw what the hell... so i posted it as ch.4

i went back and re-did some things, and i feel like im going to update this chapter soon to change some things as i think about it...

suggestions are more than welcome on this chapter. thanks!

* * *

I ran… I ran forever… I ran as far away as I could… 

The rain was not letting up, if I didn't know any better, the rain was actually getting stronger and stronger, almost as if it wanted to make my life more miserable. The thunderclaps I heard ever few seconds grew more violent and volatile as I stepped forward, like I was heading to the beast's lair…I fought hard against it, I pushed forward.

I continued to follow the mud path I had been on since the gates of Konoha, once or twice I took some detours through the woods just for the hell of it, I didn't see any reason not too… I was a bit bloody from the stray branches or exposed thorns, they cut my legs arms and face… so I eventually fought my way back to the muddy road and continued to run as hard as I could, leaving the past life I had back there behind, giving up on it… I spent far to long trying… I think its enough…

I tripped on a rock in the path, I fell face first into the soggy mud. I cursed the rock for being in my way, tasting mud as I did so. I felt a boiling anger rising inside of me… I was frustrated…

And it hit me… all these years holding it in, all this time hiding my feelings… I crawled to my knees, and in the form of the loudest scream I let it out…

The wind was blowing hard, raining punching my chest, it was trying to push me back on the ground… I let it out, the loudest most possible scream my lungs would let me let out… I made sure that even god could hear it…

16 years of frustration and bitterness finally surfaced, those times trying to be recognized, trying to be the best, being a moron, trying to impress… wanting to be Hokage… was it all a waste of time??

I only thought one thing…. Why me?

As my scream of anguish echoed through the wind, a familiar gut feeling began to consume me… I knew all to well what this feeling was…

"K – Kyuubi…" I let out. "Go… away… your nothing… nothing but trouble…"

Inside my mind I could hear his taunting laughter… it just added gasoline to the burning inferno inside my heart…

"I don't acknowledge you… I hate you… I wish you never existed…" I moaned, grabbing my chest, feeling a strange sensation in it. "I want you to die…"

His mocking laughter became one with the howling wind around me, it was getting louder… louder.. I could picture him standing in front of me laughing… I hated it…

"Kyuubi…" I began to growl. "Kyuubi…"

His laughter had stopped. And suddenly, it went all black… the storm… the wind… the dancing trees… it disappeared in a void of darkness…

I got to my feet and searched my surroundings looking for any sign of where I was before the darkness…

And then I heard it… his laughter… his taunting laughter…

"Naruto…" It called in its deep and ugly voice…

I turned around, and before me, the giant cage I had seen before… nothing but a small tag that said "Sealed" keeping the prisoner inside contained and secluded.

"Naruto…" it called once more. This time louder, like it was getting closer...

I approached the two gates, expecting to see him… I made two firm fists.

His laughter was louder than before, it was clear, he was right in front of me…

"Heh Heh… Naruto…" he said, his red eyes finally appearing in the darkness behind the gates. "Hello…."

I couldn't contain my frustration any longer… "Damn you! Look what you did to me! Because of you nobody ever cared for me! Because of you I could never fulfill my dreams! Because of you everybody hates me again!!"

He didn't respond, his red eyes just watching me…

"Kyuubi!!"

"I heard you boy…" he said menacingly. "And don't you dare give me any of that nonsense…"

"Ill give you Nonsense you tailed mother fucker!" I yelled lifting my fist at him.

"Hmm… I believe your going to blame me for the near death of the Uchiha boy are you not?"

I didn't respond… I was…

"Heh, I thought so." He said chuckling, his fangs becoming clear in the darkness. "Let me tell you…" He approached the gate even closer. His snout just peeking between the bars, his teeth sharp and barred at me… "That fight with the Uchiha… I had nothing to do with it."

"Don't you lie to me, fox! I know it was you! Because of your damn fucking Chakra, I nearly killed Sasuke!" I yelled my anger boiling.

"And, that's why Sakura-chan Hates me now…" he said imitating my voice to mock me.

"You bastard… Why don't you just go away!?" I began, thinking of anything that would even slightly offend the tailed monster…

"Because the only way for me to do so, is for you to die…" he countered.

I stopped, my anger halted, and my frustration froze… the words of Chiyo-baachan, replaying itself inside my mind…

"Heh, that's right… If the Bijuu is removed from the Jinchuuriki… than the Jinchuuriki dies…" he said laughing menacingly, "Why don't you do me a favor, no _us _a favor… why don't you just jump off a cliff?"

"What?" I said in a near weak tone, surprised by his last statement.

"You heard me boy… free me of this damn cage, release me from this… curse …" he said clawing at the gates with his massive paw. "And release yourself from my burden… two birds… with one stone… we both win…"

I absorbed Kyuubi's words like a sponge… I listened to each and every word he said… and I replayed it again and again…it made no sense, kill myself?

"Yes… yes… Kill yourself, it'll do the whole world… a favor…"

"But, if I die, then you die… right?" I said my voice quivering.

"Hmm… yes… but I think death is a much more suitable ending than an eternity trapped in this hell hole…"

I don't believe it…. Even to this thing… I'm an annoyance?

"Yes… even to me… you are just an annoyance…"

"What? You can read my mind?"

"Please…" said the monster retreating into the cage a little. "I'm a part of you whether you like it or not, your thoughts are mine…"

"Every single daydream, nightmare, and fantasy you ever had in your life… I saw them… and I will say, none of them were pleasing to watch… except the nightmares… they were worth watching…"

Some embarrassment rushed over me when he mentioned he saw my fantasies and daydreams…

"I must say, you truly hated the Uchiha boy once in your life didn't you… you actually fantasized his death once if I recall correctly…"

I felt my anger boiling inside me again… "You…"

"Don't you start… I know everything you are going to say, and so far… all I have to say to it is, shut the fuck up."

"What?"

"God, no wonder that pink haired girl thinks your damn annoying…"

"Shut up…" I growled, I had no flashy come back, he was beating me.

"Did you really think you two would ever have a chance? Please! Me escaping this prison is more likely than that!" he continued mocking me…

"Shut up…"

"Now I'm sure of it…. The people never hated you because of me… they hated you because of who you were… just you…"

"No…" I knew I was loosing this argument, and I was taking heavy damage to my psyche… "It was you… because of you… everybody hated me…" I said trying to defend myself, I felt tears welling up under my eyes… I didn't want to look weak, so I fought against them as hard as I could.

"Hmm… Do you hate her?"

I didn't respond… I took this moment to try to repel my tears.

"Do you hate her?" he repeated, this time demanding my answer. "Because if you do, I can – "

"…No…" I responded interrupting him… "I don't hate her… or anybody… I can only hate myself, for not being in control during the fights I've been through… for being so stupid when all the answers were so clear and obvious… for not becoming stronger, and for relying on you too much…"

"Really now…" he said in and interested tone. "What are you going to do about it? Kill yourself?" he really wanted to be free of his prison… and I want to get rid of him… but I don't want to give him that pleasure of freedom… he has to die…

"I'm… first going to get rid of you somehow… kill you without killing myself… than maybe… I'll find redemption…"

That was supposed to be a threat to the fucker, but he began laughing uncontrollably, kind of the way I did, when I pulled some sort of mischievous prank… "I'm afraid… getting rid of me without dying will be harder than you think… boy…"

And with the end of that, the cage in front of me disappeared, the black purgatory returned surrounding me, soundless, and empty…

"Kuubi!!" I called… nothing… just a black silent space replying my call. "You'll see! I will kill you! I don't need you! You're nothing!"

My voice echoed through the darkness, though nothing replied I knew he heard me… he'd better… cause ill find a way… I will…

Sorry Sasuke… Sakura…

-

"I think he's dead…." Said a voice… a voice? Kyuubi?

"Leave him alone, it looks like he's been through a lot…" another voice… not kyuubi, angels?

"C'mon lets poke him to see if he's dead…" said a third voice… what's going on?

Hey, that hurts… my nose… stop… wait, stop, that…

"Hiro-kun! Kame-kun! Stop that!" said the angel like voice…

"Aw come on Sakura-chan, we don't even know if he's still alive…"

Sakura…chan…?

* * *

soo? bad? if it is sorry! i had some trouble with this one too. :P 

just as a side note, this story does take place after he runs away. give you the details to what happens to naruto. next chapter will also be a naruto chapter.

as usual positive flames, suggestions are welcome.

questions? pm me, ill be glad to reply to them asap.


	6. OLD CH5

Hello, This chapter was supposed to be longer, but i stopped at the end, ideas were a little hard to come by for this chapter...that and i was lazy, so quality was a little down on this chapter. anyways enjoy!

* * *

I've been here before, this silent space… just me and my thoughts… it was quiet… peaceful… I felt at ease, I felt as though I was back at home sleeping in my warm bed on a cold night. It was nice…

The name I heard earlier, it was a nice name… I like it… Sakura… chan…

And it hit me, Sasuke… are you even alive still? I'm sorry… I didn't want to kill you… I only wanted to keep my promise… I wanted you back too… I'm sorry… I didn't mean too… I didn't…

The negative feelings I had in the storm were returning slowly like a bad itch, the frustration and sorrow mostly…but strangely, I wasn't angry at Sakura… honestly I was only angry at myself…

I can still remember… trying so hard to be… noticed. Making myself look like a jackass for it… trying to act tough when it really hurt… wanting to be Hokage, It was all a waste of time. And then… using Kyuubi's powers whenever I was loosing… relying on his power other than my own… what makes it worse, it wasn't his power that killed him… it was me… I really am useless aren't I? Maybe I _should _just die…

"Kame, pass me my stick, I wanna see if he's still alive." Said some… voice…

An angel?

"Hiro, I don't think we should poke him… what if he wakes up?" asked a second voice…

Another angel?

"Aw, we don't even know if he _is _alive…" said the frustrated first voice.

"Hiro-kun, Kame-kun… what're you two doing?" said a third voice, it was definitely one for angels… it was pretty…

I felt a tingle on my nose.

And then, fatigue and weariness came rushing over my body, I no longer felt the comfort of sleep washing it away. I just… lay here… wherever I was…

I cracked my eyes open, I looked around a little looking for my three angels, but it was all too fuzzy to make out anything clearly…

"Ah! I told you Hiro! He woke up!" said the second angel.

"Ah, wait… I thought… well…" The first angel stuttered and stammered, though my eyes were still fuzzy I saw him fumbling with the stick he was poking me with… he dropped it not to long after… where's his halo?

"What? You two woke him up?" said the third angelic voice, except this time she sounded a little angry at the pair who were poking at my nose…

I wanted to greet these three angels, thank them for taking me to heaven…

But instead, I let out a retarded moan in place of a thank you… my body was way too tired and fatigued to do anything for me.

"Rest sir… Don't mind these two idiots… just rest." said the third angel. It was a girl angel, and she had a pretty voice… awesome… I get a pretty angel…

"Yeah, um… go back to sleep… sir…" said the angel who was poking me.

The last angel, the littlest one, didn't seem to do anything, he sat there still as a rock as if I wouldn't see him… whatever… I can see you, third angel…

So… three angels huh?

"A - Are you taking me to heaven?" I finally forced out, phlegm and a sore throat preventing me from speaking clearly… Wow, dying sucks...

The three angles broke out into a quiet laughter, giggling… what were they laughing at?

"Sorry, but you're not dead yet…" said the girl angel.

My eyes opened some more, I saw slightly better, but still fuzzy, I couldn't make out their faces. I'm not dead?

"Not… dead?" I responded in a low whisper with a throat still full of phlegm… almost as If I didn't understand the two words together. "Then… where am I?"

"Your in our cabin, we found you in a crater out in the storm half dead." She said, her voice sort of soothing away my aches.

In a crater…? When the hell did I fall in there?

"Yeah, we thought you were dead when we saw you, but Sakura-chan here thought you weren't… and well… here you are…" said the second "angel"

Sakura…chan?

I suddenly felt some energy returning to me… that name almost bringing life back into my sore limp body. Even though it was a bit late, my common sense began to kick in… I wasn't dead, this feeling of death… it was a cold, and these three angles… just some good Samaritans… man… I thought I was going to heaven… I'm such a dumbass.

With the new found energy, I began to climb into a sitting position, get a good look at the three voices.

"No, lay down! You're in no condition to sit up!" said the girl, trying to ease me back to bed.

I fought against her hands on my shoulders to put me back into the soft bed

"No, I'm fine, I just… gotta get some blood going…" I said as my voice began to sound slightly normal again…

I think I had gotten up to fast, because when I did, the full force of the headache hit me like a ton of bricks… I grabbed my head in response to the immense pressure in my brain… gah.

"You shouldn't you idiot, you got a frickin cold." said one of the other angels.

I rubbed out the rest of the blur left in my eyes. Even thought my head felt like shit, I still sat up against my body's will to rest.

I removed my hands from my eyes, and in front of me, were my three "angels".

I looked at them, and they looked right back… it was a bit awkward… I got a good look of them this time, they weren't angels… what was I thinking, angels, sheesh…

One was a boy, the one who was poking me, probably about my age, If not maybe a little younger. He stood in front of my bed kinda tall, maybe my height. He had brownish skin, tanned from the sun, he had short black hair, that looked like it was styled with a shard of broken glass… it was worse than Kakashi-sensei's hair…

The other boy next to him, half his size, was a little more round. He stood to my right, hovering over my bedside. He looked like he was about 12, and the same height I was at that age to boot. He too had the same ugly ass hair and skin as the taller one, brother's maybe? And I thought Chouji was overweight… geez…

The final one… the girl "angel", she was pretty, she was definitely worthy of being one. She stood to my left sitting on the side of the bed, she looked about the same age as the tall boy, she had light brown skin, and long brown hair, and it was well groomed and well taken care of, compared to these two clowns. She had a pretty voice to match her face. She is just as pretty as…

"Are you ok?" asked the pretty girl, interrupting my thoughts.

"Huh? Oh, yeah… just a slight headache, nothing serious…" I replied trying not to mention my cold. I rubbed my face, it was hot. I had a fever…

"You didn't look ok when we found ya stranger…" said the tall boy. "What were you doing in that big ass crater anyways?"

Crater… oh yeah, that's where they found me…

"I – I don't know…" I said stupidly closing my eyes trying to remember. "Who are you guys anyway?" I asked lifting my head back up to the three.

"Oh, how silly of us, we didn't properly introduce ourselves did we?" said the pretty girl. "The tall one there, his name is Hiro…" she said pointing him out, he lifted his hand to me with a kinda cocky wave. "The shorter one there, that's his little brother, Kame…" the little guy just lifted his chubby hand and nodded. "They are both really immature, but you get used to it." She said to add some insult. "And im Sakura, Nice to meet you."

Sakura... are all girls with this name pretty?

"Nice to meet you guys… and uh, thanks for rescuing me in that storm." I said nodding slightly, trying not to make my headache any worse.

"No problem, what's your name?" Sakura asked.

"Naruto…" I responded. I almost gagged on my own name.

"Well, nice to meet you Naruto-kun. Please, rest, you have a minor cold, you should at least spend the night here…" Sakura said kindly.

My cheeks went a little warm, probably from my cold… but she.. she called me Naruto-_kun_….

"Nah, I couldn't," I said trying to sound as humble as I could. "I feel better already…" I was lying in her face…

"Well, even if you were feeling better, we couldn't let you back out into that storm now could we?" she replied.

It was still pouring outside… geez, are all Sakura's smart too? It was pouring outside… "Then, I guess I'm staying tonight…"

"Agreed." She said nicely… Wow, I don't think I've ever been treated so nicely since Iruka-sensei…

She sat up from my bedside and walked over to a nearby stove, she was boiling something… and if my damn nose wasn't so stuffed I probably could be able to smell what she was cooking.

"Hey," said Hiro "What _were _you doing out in the storm anyways…"

The negative feelings that went away for a few minutes returned, I didn't want to tell them the real reason for me running around in the storm.

"Oh, I got lost just before the storm kicked in." I said giving them one of my signature smiles, a hollow one at best.

"I see, and then you fell into that giant crater right?" he asked continuing to interrogate me.

Why _was_ I in that crater… how the hell did I get there… I don't remember falling into any crater.

"Oh, uh, yeah… the storm was crazy, I couldn't see where I was going and I guess I blacked out when I fell in." I said lying.

Kame and Hiro only nodded, apparently buying my little lie, I felt a little guilty lying to them about it, but I don't want to burden them with my own… and plus they don't really need to know… so I left it as is…

I took a look around the cabin I was in, taking my attention away from the two brothers who were discussing something between each other. The cabin itself wasn't too big, it was just one big room, the kitchen, dining room, and living area were all one, the windows were evenly spaced from each other throughout the cabin… the place must be well lit during the day. Not much was in the cabin either, just a large old stove that uses wood as a source of heat, and lighting for the nights. An old looking table that had four chairs around it not to far from the stove. An old brown sofa and a nightstand with a flower pot on top next to the only door were all that really made the place decorative, other than that, that was pretty much it. I sat in a bed, which was next to two more with sheets nicely folded on them, the one I lay in was larger than the other two, maybe its Hiro's… clearly these three live together.

"Sorry our Cabin isn't hospitable, it's all we really have…" said Sakura placing a tray on my bed.

I brought my attention to her, "Oh, no… its really cozy and nice, Thank you…" I said as I received the tray.

"Sorry again, but this is all we really can cook in our cabin, we haven't had much luck with our vegetable garden." She said apologetically.

"No, no… its fine, this…" I halted words… I couldn't finish what I was going to say… just looking at the small plastic bowl on the tray left me speechless…

"You, don't like cup ramen?"

* * *

as always i accept positive flames, suggestions for later chapters. in fact please give me some, ideas, w.e i need some to complete this freaking story lol. ill try to answer as many questions as possible... later. 


	7. OLD CH6

Update: Turns out my movers have changed schedule, and i wont be moving until this friday... yay... sorta... well anyway it gave me some time to look over my latest chapter, and as i suspected, it was the wrong version... there were minor differences really... mainly some dialogue changes, spelling, grammer, etc. i even went back and added a little more. Anyway i hope you enjoy this chapter!

* * *

Hey there, its been a while hasnt it... i came back and fourht and made numerous versions of this chapter... so much, that im not even sure i uploaded the right one... but in any case, they are all essentially the same... i will come back and look over this chapter myself and replace this chapter if it is the wrong one... find any mistakes please tell me... it would help alot!

might i add this chapter took ages to work on aswell... lol especially because i had to blend in a few suggestions to make this chapter/story work. anyways enjoy!

ps. IF it is the wrong version of the chapter, and i dont update it soon, then im afriad your going to have to wait a while, because im moving soon and all my stuff will be packed up and what not... and i broke my laptop hahaha.

* * *

Guilt finally had settled into my heart these past few days… and it planned to stay there for a long time… 

When news finally reached out to the village about Naruto… just about everybody let me know exactly what they were thinking…

Some would ask, "Why did you say those things? What were you thinking?"

Others would ask, "Do you have any idea how badly that must have hurt Naruto?"

And the rest… either gave me lectures that seemed to drag on about me being stupid and cruel, or were too disgusted to even talk to me… and I wasn't too surprised at their reactions… I never once made any attempt to defend myself… I saw that I deserved every negative thing they had to say about me.

But, what did surprise me was that some people… actually congratulated me on what I had done… what the hell…?

Even my father, my very own father… said what I did was brave… and that it was something that was long past due…

"What you did, was something many of us have wanted to do…" they would say. "Thank you…"

Thanking me… for causing somebody pain? Where's the logic in that? All I know… is that instead of being scolded… They were trying to thank me, make me feel proud of myself, of what I did… but instead… they only made me like a convicted criminal who had committed a terrible crime… and I felt like one.

I gritted my teeth in bitterness towards the townsfolk who still felt so badly towards Naruto…

The wind blew slightly around us, the leaves in the trees rustled from it, and the cicadas and crickets sang loudly into the night… the wind that was blowing felt concentrated in the small clearing of our camp grounds, it made the cold tonight seem even colder… it was like the wind itself was trying to teach me a lesson.

I brought my knees closer to my chest and wrapped my arms around them tightly to keep warm from the hissing wind.

Have you found shelter tonight?

"Hey, Sakura… go to sleep…"

The words went in through one ear, and out the other… I was far to occupied by my thoughts to even consider sleeping… in fact, I haven't slept a full night in a while nor have I eaten properly… but even so, my bodies need to eat and sleep would always be countered by the overwhelming guilt I had. I sat there and continued to stare into our dying campfire.

Have you eaten yet?

"Hey! Sakura… I said go to sleep."

A crackle in the embers brought me back down to earth, I lifted my head slightly in response to my team leader. "Sorry Shikamaru… ill go to sleep in a few minutes." I said shifting my eyes towards him.

He only gave me one more look before he laid back down into his sleeping bag… and it was quiet again, only crickets, the crackling embers, and the hissing wind were left to be heard in the night.

It was lonely without him… this is my first mission without him… without him, being in a team had a whole new meaning…It was lonely. I buried my face into my knees and closed my eyes… hoping sleep would come without me noticing… And like all the times I tried to sleep, the haunting image of Naruto's broken expression returned. And every time I saw it… it broke me on the inside…

I'm so sorry Naruto… I didn't mean to yell at you like that… Will you forgive me?

As I apologized to the imaginary Naruto in my head, I began to remember… I owe so much to him… though Sasuke-kun was returned half-dead… he was still alive no less… Naruto fulfilled his promise to me… and still… I never once thanked him since we returned from our mission…

In fact, I don't think I remember a time I had done anything for Naruto when we were still Genin… and even so… He..

My stomach plunged… and I felt like throwing up…

He made a promise to me… and he kept it… and I yelled at him for it… What have I done? What was I thinking?

Consumed by a swarm of thoughts, I didn't realize two streams of warm tears were trickling down my cheeks and onto my knees… I am so pathetic… I still haven't grown up… I always thought I did, but in reality… I'm still the same child that couldn't do anything three years ago…

Naruto…

_Ill never go back on my words Sakura-chan… Ill bring Sasuke… that's a promise of a lifetime!_

I replayed those words over and over again… and every time I did, more tears would follow. In my heart, I wanted to give up and head home… even if we did find him… would he want to come home? Would he find it in his heart to forgive those terrible things I said to him? Maybe…. Maybe, I should just give up…

"Sakura-chan?" came a voice behind me…

Sakura-chan…

I don't know whether exhaustion and lack nutrition was finally playing tricks on me… but….

I quickly lifted my head and turned around.

"Oh… Hinata-chan…" I said disappointed.

"Are you ok?" she asked looking down at me

"W-what are you talking about?"

"I could hear you crying, and I wanted to make sure you were alright…" she said in her always kind tone. I was surprised she was even talking to me, in a kind way no less…

I quickly realized, there were still two streams of tears trickling down on the sides of my cheeks… and my nose had begun to leak slightly… I quickly rubbed it all away, trying to recompose myself.

"I – wasn't crying… go back to sleep Hinata-chan… I'm fine…really…"

"I'm glad to hear that you are alright… but how are you feeling." She responded. "I've noticed since we left Konoha, you haven't been yourself lately… and you haven't eaten or slept properly in days."

"Thank you Hinata-chan, for caring for me." I said as I wiped the last tear away. "But, don't worry about me… I just want to be alone for a while."

"Sakura-chan… don't seclude yourself like that. If you keep doing that, then you won't ever feel better. You should, talk to your friends about how you are feeling." She said twiddling her fingers.

"I'm surprised you're still willing to call me friend. Everybody else in our team is either angry at me, or disgusted at me… either way… they aren't to happy at what I said to Naruto…"

"Of course I'm your friend…" she said as she sat down next to me. "Everybody else is also your friend, its just… it'll take time for them to get over this situation." She continued as she put up her knees and wrapped her arms around them as I did… it was a cold night.

I found it strange Hinata-chan was so… calm and gentle towards me… I could have sworn that she would have been angry at me. But, then again, I don't think I have ever seen her angry before…

I nodded in a slight agreement, "Yeah… I guess so… It's not everyday somebody runs away from home, and you're the cause of it."

It fell quiet a little bit. The embers in the campfire crackled a little more as it continued to burn what was left of the fire wood that wasn't burnt yet. We both broke eye contact to watch the small dancing flames.

"Sakura-chan…" Hinata-chan said after a slight pause. "I said this before… but… don't take this all too seriously…"

Heh, easier said than done… I thought to myself in a depressed manner.

"Hinata-chan, thank you really… for trying to cheer me up… but… you know.. It really is all my fault." I felt some of the tears I wiped away returning slowly, I did my best to hold them at bay.

"Y-yeah… but… if you keep this up, we wont be able to find Naruto-kun and bring him home…"

"When we find him we will bring him home… don't worry."

"No, no… that's not what I meant… it's…" her voice began to tremble a little bit, it seemed whatever she wanted to say next was getting to her. "It's just that, without you… Naruto-kun will never return home…"

"What are you talking about? We'll knock him out and drag him home if we have too."

"No, Sakura-chan, you're missing the point… Naruto-kun…"

What was she trying to get too…? She really needed to learn on how to get her point out there.

"Naruto-kun will only come home… if only you talk to him…"

"What are you talking about?"

Hinata sighed a little, either she was getting fed up with my stupidity, or she was bracing herself for what she was about to say next. "Sakura-chan… Why did Naruto-kun run away?"

Her question was like a sucker punch to me mentally… thinking about the whole ordeal was the last thing I needed… but… "Because…" I hesitated, "because, I yelled at him… I said terrible things to him… I said things I shouldn't have said to him…" I said as I lowered my chin onto my folded arms, feeling guilty again.

"Yes…" she replied. "But… I'm more than positive, you never meant any of those words that day…"

I thought about it for a moment… I thought back to that cloudy day, I replayed that scene one more time, and I reinserted myself back into that position… "No…" I replied flatly. "I didn't… I was… scared… I was so scared that Sasuke-kun was going to die… that I was acting on my emotions…" the tears that were building up earlier returned with more vitality than before… I didn't do well to hold them back this time…one tear had already overflowed under my eye, and trickled down my cheek slowly. "And I shouldn't have…"

"Sakura-chan." Hinata-chan said as she put her warm hand on my shoulder. "It's ok… You didn't mean it… that's all there is too it.." she said as kindly as ever.

"But… I made the mistake… and because of it, he's out there, cold, hungry, alone… it's my fault…" some more tears came… and they began to trickle down my face.

"And that's why… only you can bring him home…"

I looked back over to Hinata-chan, my face half soaked from the escaping tears. "I… don't understand…"

"Naruto-kun ran away because you hurt him... and the only way for him to heal that wound… is for you to apologize to him yourself…" she said flatly.

She retracted her hand back to her knees, and looked into the fire. She had a calm look on her face. "Every time I see him with you… talking with you… being around you… He always had a twinkle in his eye." She said as continued to watch the fire. "He always had deep feelings for Sakura-chan…"

I felt my stomach plunge again

"And because of those feelings he has… Is why neither I, nor anybody else in our team…. Or anybody else in Konoha can bring him back."

I didn't know what to say… my mind was whirling with countless thoughts… what Hinata-chan said, did make sense… As Genin, I remember all the failed attempts Naruto made for a date… but then again… I thought it was a crush…and it was… And… Since he returned… I thought those feelings had finally passed, and we were just friends… Was I wrong? But… now… I just don't know… is what Hinata-chan saying true?

"Hinata-chan… Why are you being so nice to me?" I asked out loud. "Why aren't you angry or bitter towards me like the others are?"

She paused a moment, taking her time to think, "Because… You are my friend… And I could never bring myself to hate anybody… especially friends…"

I'm her friend… That's.. Nice… that's nice to hear, I thought to myself smiling.

"How do you do it Hinata-chan… really…" I asked her.

She shook her head slowly side to side, "I don't know…" she said as I noticed her cheeks slowly turn slightly pink.

"Hinata-chan… you must care for Naruto…" I said out randomly.

I heard her yelp quietly, like what I just said was some sort of taboo. I looked over to her again, and she went from a soft pink, to a bright red. I didn't know Hinata-chan well… but I knew this look she was giving… it was something I knew pretty well.

"No, no!" she frantically replied. "It's not that! I'm just… worried for Naruto… that's all.." She continued, moving a strand of hair from her face with her hand. She was a terrible liar..

Naruto is lucky to have such a kind person who cares for him so deeply. "Maybe you should talk to him too… I think he will definitely change his mind if you talk to him…" I said to her. Deep inside my heart, I felt like I was letting some sort of… opportunity, slip away… but… Hinata-chan cares for Naruto… who knows… they may make a cute couple.. But then why do I feel weird thinking about it??

I returned my attention to Hinata-chan… who was blushing furiously… I couldn't help but let a quiet giggle out…

"Hinata-chan… thank you…" I said thinking enough was enough. I rubbed under my nose with my finger, riding myself of whatever was left there from when I was crying.

She slowly and gradually began to return to her normal color, "For what?"

"For cheering me up… Thank you… you are a good friend."

She nodded with a smile on her face. "Yes." She said softly.

I know what I have to do now… I can't cut myself down like this forever… I made a mistake, and now it's my duty to correct that mistake… I failed to bring home somebody I cared for once before… and I wont fail again…

"Let's not give up okay?" she asked tilting her head to the side. "We'll find Naruto-kun." She boasted confidently.

I still had some lingering guilt in my heart… but it wasn't as great as the day we were dispatched… but I definetly felt a whole lot better… I felt like… Naruto… had given me strength and courage…

I looked back over at Hinata-chan, she was smiling and staring into the campfire again. She has really changed… she's not the same shy girl at the academy… She's a shy girl with a slight Naruto mentality.

"Yeah… We'll find him… and bring him home, together..." I said smiling back to her.

Our brief moment was cut short, when a whizzing noise past between Hinata-chan and me… the flying projectile missing the two of us by mere inches.

"Kiba-kun!" yelled Hinata-chan, "What are you doing?"

"I smelt something in the breeze, and it woke me up… something is in the bushes." Kiba replied, Akamaru at his side growling lowly towards the direction the Kunai knife went.

Before I knew it, Shikamaru, Ino, and even Sai were already out of their sleeping bags and had their Kunai's drawn and ready to repel whatever attack was going to be made. What was going on?

I turned around to where the Kunai had hit. "Come out of there!" I yelled quickly getting to my feet and making two fists, ready for any confrontation.

Hinata-chan stood also, taking her Jyuuken stance… she readied herself for Byakugan to identify the intruder, but before she could… the intruder had already stepped into the dim light of our campfire.

"S…Sasuke-kun…" I let out.

He stood there, handsome as ever, I was far to shocked to move from where I was standing. He carried a backpack, and he wore the same robes he wore when we found him months ago. "What was that for?" He asked in a low tone.

"Sasuke!" exclaimed Shikamaru. "What the hell are you doing here? You should still be in the hospital!"

"I was released yesterday… and your Hokage sent me here as your backup… she said you were short handed." He said as he placed his backpack down… as he did, His sword came into clear view… I thought Tsunade-sama confiscated that… and held it somewhere safe…

"She thought you guys would need my help." He said smirking deviously.

"You Lie! Hokage-sama would never let you on a mission especially after what you did!" yelled Kiba, his feral fangs barred.

"It's the truth… You can ask her… yourself." He said, in some sort of… strange tone… if I didn't know better… it sounded that of his brother in a way.

There was definetly something wrong here… even IF Tsunade-sama allowed Sasuke-kun to come and join our mission… why would she send him in such a weakened state? It didn't make any sense…

"Sakura…" he said looking to me with his raven eyes. "It's been awhile…"

* * *

like always, positve flames, reviews, and suggestions are always welcome. 


	8. OLD CH7

Yo, Thanks for being patient with this one guys. even though you guys still flooded me with questions on this chapters release... when i clearly stated in the intermission one not too.. lol.

this one was especially delayed not just because of school, or just free time, my car was recently stolen and i had to get the lazy ass cops to do their damn job. lol

this chapter was originally supposed to be longer, but i shortened it and changed the end of it slightly so that i could get it up and running. the parts i cut out will just be in chapter 8. (it was nearly... 7000 words originally i think?)

just a few things to point out: I will be writing in the Sakura pov for the next chapters. it seems alot of you guys are confused about the Sasuke in the team thing. so ill do my best to explain that in later chapters.

Im not to satisified on this chapter... Ill end up comming back to edit it and reupload... but for now, please settle with this shaky version will ya? thanks.

(edit: THanks for the 16k hits!)

* * *

The air began to grow warmer as I breathed it in deeply, morning had finally come. 

The crickets finally ceased their all night concert, and soon all I could hear was the snoring of some of my teammates… namely Ino and Kiba…

I shifted around in my sleeping bag onto my left side to a more comfortable laying position, using my left hand as an added pillow facing where Sasuke-kun was sleeping quietly. I couldn't keep my mind off of him, all night my mind thought of nothing but him, I wondered; what he was doing here? Why did Tsunade-sama send him? He should be in no condition to even be walking under his own strength. I wanted to believe he was sent here to help us… but something was off, and I couldn't shake it.

Not only that… just seeing him, right there… not even ten feet away from me… It only reminded me of how Naruto had risked it all just to bring him back… he promised me years ago… and he kept to it ever since. And I still didn't treat him nicely…

I never once thanked him for it…

I heard some stirring in the campsite, "Alright, its time to wake up you guys." My ears twitched as I heard Shikamaru's suddenly speak behind me, "We gotta get moving… we don't how far he went, and we don't know how much further he has moved… Lets get going, I don't want to make this mission anymore troublesome than it already is…" he spoke, a slight insulting tone in it to hint to me that It was because of me that we are out here on this mission.

"Uwwaaaa…" yawned a waking Ino, "Good morning everybody…" she moaned in her yawn. She was never a morning person, I've known that especially when we had sleepovers when we were little girls. And with the events that played out last night, it didn't help her with her morning at all.

In fact, everybody went to sleep late last night, with the sudden and unexpected arrival of Sasuke-kun, everybody was on high alert and very suspicious of him… I guess they still had some bitter feelings towards him for his betrayal three years ago. But eventually we settled down, and agreed on waking early tomorrow for our mission, but I think it was a little late when we agreed to finally sleep at five in the morning. Actually, I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one awake last night…

I slowly sat up from my sleeping bag facing the center of the campsite where our campfire used to be burning, watching everybody wake up and get out of their sleeping bags. I didn't feel too tired like Ino did, the night from before had me wide awake and far from sleepy the remainder of the short night…

"Kiba, wake up." said Shikamaru walking over to his sleeping bag. "Give Akamaru the scent again so we can pick up the trail …Hey!" he said walking over to Kiba's sleeping bag and gently tapping the bag with his foot.

Kiba only stirred in his sleeping bag as his loud snores ceased from Shikamaru's gentle nudge. Not wanting to wake up from his late night slumber, he responded to Shikamaru in a very lazy tone, "Shut up, it's to early…" his snores followed not to far from his lazy remark.

I shifted my attention over to where Sasuke-kun was again, he too still lay in his sleeping bag, his sword firmly held in his hands like it was something of absolute importance. I slowly and steadily got to my feet and walked over to him, leaving the warmth of my sleeping bag behind. I got a little head rush from getting up, but it wasn't too bad, I shook it off in no time, "Sasuke-kun?" I said as I approached him shaking the remainder of my head rush. "It's time to wake up."

I was hovering over him now, I looked into the side of his face, watching him sleep peacefully. His sleeping bag covered his face the nose down, but evens so… He was still as handsome as ever… If I didn't know any better, he hasn't changed at all facially, maybe a more grown up look, but the same face nonetheless… and because of that, deep in my heart I wanted to trust him so badly, I just couldn't picture him the traitor he was three years ago… I wanted to forget everything from the past and start fresh again… but something else was telling me otherwise… After all, this was the same boy who I fell in love with three years ago, and then abandoned us.

He didn't even stir in his sleeping bag, maybe he didn't hear me.

I extended my hand to grab his shoulder, my hand was inches from his shoulder… His eyes suddenly shot open, and shifted towards me quickly, I couldn't even blink before they were focused onto me. And when I blinked a second time, a very sharp blade was mere millimeters from my throat, and I was held up against a tree… I didn't even have a chance to flinch or take a breath, my body was far to slow to process and react to what had just happened so quickly. The blade crackled slightly with electricity as it slowly eased forward to my jugular… it was like something was holding him back.

I looked into his eyes… they were blank, no emotions… like they were running on pure instinct and motor functions… or maybe not.

Somebody behind him let out a breath of relief, "That was a close one…"

I slowly turned to Shikamaru, who had his hands made into a seal for his shadow controlling technique, "Sai, take his sword…"

Not a moment later, Sai appeared almost out of nowhere, he slowly grabbed the crackling blade, and he slowly slid the handle from Sasuke-kuns grasp. "Hmph…" he grunted, "Always so quick with your Shadow techniques aren't you Nara?" He said in a low growl, almost angry at him for stopping him...

"Sasuke!" yelled Ino, "What're you doing?"

Indeed, what was he doing, or what was he thinking for that matter. I stood there frozen, mere inches away from the Uchiha boy his arms still in the position to cut me, only the blade was taken away, and I was firmly planted against the tree behind my back still trying to back away from him even though I knew his sword was gone. I was still in deep shock by his sudden action to even move a muscle. He didn't mean too… did he??

"Sakura-chan, Are you ok?" came a timid and refreshing voice from behind me. She placed her hand on my shoulder and shook it a little trying to get me to respond.

My legs finally collapsed from her slight jolt, and I fell to the side away from Sasuke-kun and into Hinata-chan grasp, "Y-yeah… Just…" I stammered rubbing where the blade would have connected.

"Hmph," grunted Sasuke-kun, "Sorry… It was just… a subconscious reaction." He said in an emotionless tone.

"You lie." said Shikamaru still firmly holding the seal to his technique. "What's wrong with you…" Shikamaru growled, "Your not the same Sasuke we all used to know…"

"Honest, it's just … something I picked up in my time alone…" He continued in his emotionless tone… it was believable. "Will you please let me go now? I do believe you said we had a mission to get to."

I saw Shikamaru grit his teeth, he didn't reply to him right away, "I'm going to keep my eye on you…" he growled in a low tone as he lowered his two hands releasing the seal to the technique.

Sasuke-kun's arms dropped signaling the technique had lifted, he shot his eyes at me coldly, I sat in Hinata-chan's grasp still a little terrified and shaken from the sudden ordeal, "Sorry." He said flatly.

He didn't mean it… He didn't mean it… I thought to myself, my heart finally slowing down.

I sat there in Hinata-chan's grasp a while longer… Sasuke-kun drew his sword at me… and if it weren't for Shikamaru, then I would probably dead right now… He's not the same boy I knew three years ago… Shikamaru is right, He's completely different…

No..

But then again, He has been in Orochimaru's lair for nearly three years, and for those three years he planned on taking his body, its no surprise he would be so alert if somebody were to suddenly awake him… And all that time with Hebi, who knows what he had encountered before we engaged with them… Perhaps he was right… Maybe it was just a natural reaction he picked up on his journey…

…I felt like I was lying to myself…

I finally stood from Hinata-chan's lap feeling a little shaky. I just want to forget this ever happened.

"Alright…" Said Shikamaru, breaking the awkward silence not letting his eyes drift away from Sasuke-kun, "Now that we're all wide awake… Lets get packed and going… we have a looong day ahead of us."

Kiba finally poked his head out of his sleeping bag responding to the ruckus we had made, "Hey… what the hell is going on?" he asked in a groggy tone.

Ino didn't hesitate to stomp onto the lazy Kiba, "You idiot! This whole time you were still in there sleeping?!" she continued her volley of kicks and stomps onto the helpless Kiba, "You lazy, worthless, useless piece of sh.."

"Ino-chan, stop it! Your hurting him…" Hinata-chan said trying to calm her down… Ino was still in her cranky morning mood, it was nearly useless to stop her.

"Enough!" yelled Shikamaru, "Kiba… get up."

Ino finally stopped her relentless stomping. Kiba crawled out of his sleeping bag, shaken, beaten and terrified from Ino's kicks… I wasn't surprised to see him in pain… she did after all, have comparable kicks to my own…

I felt my heart returning to normal… watching this silly play unravel in front of me was something I needed to see… Regardless of how unprofessional it looked.

"He didn't mean to do it…" I whispered, lying to myself as I watched Ino get one last kick in on him.

Kiba slowly stumbled to his feet, "What just happened right now?" he asked dusting himself off.

"Nothing… Don't worry about it," Said Shikamaru not letting his eyes escape Sasuke-kun, "Here's Naruto's forehead protector… Give Akamaru the scent so we can get going."

"He should still have the scent fresh in his head ya know… He's no dumb dog…" Kiba said as he took the forehead protector, "Hey…" he said looking around, "Where's Akamaru?"

Like it was on queue, a howl in the far distance echoed around and through the trees and into our campsite… a second howl came shortly after the first one and echoed around us like the first one did… they sounded far, but they sounded so clear even in the distance…

"Akamaru!" said Kiba, responding to the wolf like howl, "He's found something…"

"Wait… where is he? Where did he go?" I asked, my voice still trembling a little.

"Who knows, but that howl… He's saying he's found something… Come on!" Kiba took off heading west, "This way!"

"Hey Kiba!" yelled Ino, "Wait you idiot! Help us pack up the campsite before you go you asshole!!"

-

The howl echoed again, this time closer than it was from the campsite. Even with fatigue in our systems and our heavy packs weighing us down, we each glided through the tree branches with relative ease… I guess that's Konoha's Chuunin and Jounin for you…

The howl came again, this time it was louder than it was before… we were getting close… really close.

"Over there!" pointed Kiba, who was in front of the group leading us to Akamaru.

Geez… where did Akamaru go? We are at least half a mile away from our campsite.

My question was soon answered when a bright light began to shine through the leaves, it was the end of the dark maze like forest … the trees and branches ended… and we came to, "A black crater??"

Akamaru was at its edge howling loudly into the sky still calling to us… When we broke through the thick vegetation, he ceased his ear shattering sonic howl and greeted Kiba with a slobbery pant.

We jumped from the tree branches, and approached the tip of the gargantuan black crater that lay in front of us… It was Huge… If I could compare it to something, I'd say it was nearly one third the size of Konoha!

When we all passed through the trees, we took the time to gaze out into the strange black crater… the wind howled in the chasm, it was eerie and it cut to the bone… the mere sight of this thing helped us forget this morning's mishap… if not it was only me…

What could have made this thing?

"This crater is huge!" exclaimed Ino using her hand to shade her eyes from the sun, as she peered over the crater. "I wonder how old this thing is…"

"It's not…" Shikamaru said approaching the edge of the crater. He bent down, and picked up a finger full of the strange black dirt.

"Not what Shikamaru-kun?" asked Hinata.

"This Crater… It's not that old…"

I came up behind him, "What do you mean?"

"Well for starters… If it were caused by something like a meteor, than I think we would have felt it even in Konoha. Do any of you recall an earthquake recently?" he asked facing all of us.

We all shook our heads in unison.

"Second the dirt and rock in this crater would have been melted IF it was caused by a comet or meteor and turned into a giant rock quarry in addition to countless years of erosion… Besides, would a crater be black if it were hundreds of years old? Therefore, this thing is relatively fresh to say the least…"

I looked over the extending crater again… its black color was indeed a mystery…

"Not only that, I don't recall any craters in this area on our map… Look…" he said pulling a map out of his rear pocket, "Our campsite is here, and we headed due west about half a mile to here, where we are right now… Unless we have an outdated map, I'd say this place should be the thickest part of the forest. And Konoha has the best up to date maps in the country…"

We all gathered around the map and studied it, we were pretty packed close to just see the map Shikamaru was holding… in fact, Sasuke-kun was literally breathing down my neck… I should be blushing… but instead, I'm…

"This was no natural phenomenon… Somebody made this crater with chakra…"

His final remark caught most of us off guard…

"No way!" Kiba exclaimed butting in, "To make something this huge with chakra alone is impossible! Even if you wanted to make a crater like this, you'd need at least ten Ninja with large amounts of Chakra themselves to even make something like this… And even then, we would have felt this thing go off whether it was an asteroid or a damn Chakra explosion… and even IF they did that, they would die in the process doing so. Now that just makes no sense!" he finished as he crossed his arms, Akamaru panting at his side.

Immense amounts of Chakra… and for us not to be able to feel something like this…

We broke away from the map and separated a little, a little caught off guard from the new information we had just received.

"There's no other explanation… if it were a meteor hit recently, than all the trees would be incinerated around here… And I do think we would have felt it all the way from our campsite, hell even Konoha would feel the impact of the meteor."

Who could have this much chakra to create this crater?

"Alright then smartass… than who or what created this thing?!"

Shikamaru sighed a little, obviously he was getting annoyed with this conversation already, "I told you… It was chakra…As for the persons who made it… I don't know, It couldn't have been a group of Ninja, nor a battle… there would be signs of a battle everywhere, and the crater wouldn't be this much of a perfect circle… this thing was concentrated… But it is strange. We would have received some sort of report of a large battle, or like you said, we would have felt this thing go off anyway…" Shikamaru crossed his arms and began to think hard…

"This is crazy…" Said Kiba also crossing his arms, he was also getting frustrated with the conversation, "Who would have this much chakra to create something this huge??"

The thunderstorm… it would have masked the sound of the explosion… and it would have been considered a slight tremor from the thunderclaps that day…

My heart sank a little… Akamaru obviously remembers Naruto's scent… and he followed it out here… "I think I know…" I whispered in a low tone, not letting anybody hear me…

"Ow!" I said as something stung the back of my head.

"Ninjas!" came a ratty voice in the forest behind us.

Everybody immediately responded to the voice, myself included. Right here, not even hidden in the trees, a boy… a round boy… and he had a handful of rocks in his hands. He cocked his arm back to throw a volley of rocks.

"Take this ya good for nothing jerk offs!" he yelled as he continued to flail small stones at us.

A lifted my hand to protect my face from the oncoming rocks, and as quickly as they began… they immediately stopped. "Huh?"

I looked back at the source of where the rocks were flying from, Sasuke-kun had him by his shirt, "Lemme go you son of a - "

Sasuke-kun quickly silenced the rather chubby boy by lifting him off his feet. "H-hey! Stop it! Hiro!! Hiro!!! Help! There are ninjas here!!!"

"Shut up…" Sasuke-kun said coldy, "We can do this the easy way or the hard way… and right now, you're asking for the hard way."

In that tone, it would have even frozen the toughest of Ninja… it was cold… He truly has changed… almost ruthless.

"Hey! Let go of him!!!" came another voice… it sounded older.

This time the voice was rather well hidden, it echoed from the trees… perhaps an enemy Ninja?

"Come out of there!" yelled Ino, "We don't want to fight you!"

The voice didn't respond… He was preparing to attack us.

I looked at Akamaru, maybe he was already onto this mystery person's scent. As I thought he would, Akamaru's nose began to twitch in a certain direction, "Over there!" yelled Kiba pointing at a bush about fourteen feet away.

That was the stranger's signal to attack, he came rushing out of the bush, a long thick stick in his hand and waving it wildly. He let out a battle cry as he ran headstrong towards Sasuke-kun, "Let go of him! Kyaah!!" he yelled swinging his weapon like a crazed maniac.

Sasuke-kun quickly silenced the assailant as quickly as he did with the first one, within a blink of an eye, he drew his sword, splitting the stick straight down the center skillfully. He didn't finish there… he raised his sword again pointing its deadly point at the attacker.

"Sasuke-kun Don't!" I yelled trying to stop him… Clearly, these two aren't Ninja, or enemies for that matter… They were only kids, even though they did attack us, they didn't deserve to die…

"Don't what?" he questioned holding the blade a few inches from the attackers nose, who stood petrified and frozen in the presence of his sharp sword.

"Don't you dare point yer nasty sword at my brother!" said the chubby boy biting down his hand.

Sasuke-kun didn't even flinch as his hand slowly drew blood from the boy's fanglike bite. "Weak…" he muttered. He dropped the chubby boy, and sheathed his sword… He was still as skillful as he's ever been.

Sai took this advantage, while the older boy was shocked by Sasuke-kun's lighting fast reflexes, and while the little boy was sitting on the floor from his fall from Sasuke-kun's grasp, he quickly wrapped the two boy's hands with rope, tied them together and sat them in front of us ready for interrogation.

I looked at them… a little angry at the little fat one for throwing a rock at me. They did have a certain resemblance to each other… brothers for sure; their hair looked terrible… almost like they tried to cut it with glass… Maybe they were from a nearby town?

"Alright…" sighed Shikamaru rubbing the back of his neck where he was struck by a rock, "Who are you two and why did you attack us?"

The two pouted and faced opposite directions not paying any attention to Shikamaru, "Hmph… we don't answer to a Ninja who have to resort to weapons like cowards…" the fat one responded.

"Yeah." Said the older one nodding.

"Is that so…" said Sasuke-kun approaching the two, putting his hand on his sword handle signaling he was going to draw again.

The older of the two boys quickly shot his eyes to him, from where I was standing, I could see the sheer terror in his eyes and he was being stared down by Sasuke-kun. The younger one, sat in silence, not even reacting to anything. He sat there pouting, clearly, he didn't like Ninjas in the least bit.

"Hiro-kun! Kame-kun!" came a third mystery voice in the forest, "Where are you?!" it came calling.

It was a girl voice that echoed through the trees.

"Don't come here! There are Ninja!" yelled the younger boy.

We heard rustling in the bushes, "Kame-kun!" came the voice again, then she burst through the trees and in front of us. She stopped in her tracks as she stared at all of us her eyes questioning why the two boys were tied up. She then shifted her attention to the two tied boys, "Hiro-kun! Kame-kun!" she yelled approaching them.

We looked at each other, slightly confused by who this mystery girl was.

"What did you two do now? Geez, I swear the both of you aren't worth the amount of trouble you guys get into!" she said scolding the two as she towered over the sitting boys.

"It wasn't our fault!" yelled the older boy defending himself, "We found these Ninjas, and they attacked us! Especially that guy with the sword over there!"

"Oh please..." I said in a hushed whisper.

The girl broke away from the two boys and approached us. "I'm sorry about these two, they are real troublemakers I know, but please… could you release them?" she asked bowing down to us in apology.

She was my height and if not also my age… she had long brown hair, and slightly tanned skin… She had a backpack on… a big one… was she traveling with these two boys?

"Sakura-chan! Don't bow to those jerks! I told you they attacked us first!" yelled the taller boy.

Sakura-chan?

"They are good for nothing Ninjas!" continued the chubby boy.

"Quiet Kame-kun!" she yelled turning back to the tied boy.

She was strict, and in control of the two delinquents… Just like any girl names Sakura should be... No, All girls should be...

"I don't know what's wrong with you two! One second we are heading to Konoha, and the next second you two come running down here hoping to find Naruto-kun - "

Something in the back of my mind snapped… Naruto!

"Naruto?!" I said speaking my mind, cutting off the girl from her speech.

She turned around and faced me, her facial expression reflected my own, "You know Naruto-kun? Do you know where he is? Can you help us find him??"

This was our first lead since we began our mission... But.. Why are they looking for him?

* * *

the plot thickens... hahaha. jk. if the ending was a little weird. sorry, like i siad, it was different before, and i decided to cut it and change it a little for the sake of uploading for you guys.

i did my best to make Shikamaru the badass detective figure he always is... i hope i did a good job.

im still open to suggesions, just please dont ask when itll be done okay? it may be a little late, being my car stolen and such... but rest assured ill try to get it done asap along with my other story. laters

positive flames are welcome etc etc.


	9. OLD ch8

omfg... i am soooo sorry. first off:

i have forgotten my life as a ff author for a little while and i do solemnly apolgize for that. school and getting a new car and insurance was really breathing down my neck. but today i remembered my ff life and decided to check my ff email... and wow... oodles upon oodles of emails... i only replied to some of them... sorry.

secondly,

i have no idea what the hell happened to this chapter. i remeber i uplaoded it... and then apparently it got deleted for some reason. so today i spent a few hours changing a few things right now before i reupload this chapter.

i am SOOO sorry i am late. please dont expect frequent updates from me. next chapter soon... i hope.

im pretty sure there are little to no mistakes in this rewrite.

A/N: this chapter is mainly to describe my OC's background. kind of consider it a filler.

(Sakura calls my OC Sakura "Sakura-san", so does everybody else.) hopefully thatll ease some confusion.

* * *

"So what are you doing out here Sakura-san?" asked Kiba, poking the campfire keeping it alive. 

She didn't respond to him, she only continued to stare into the hypnotic flames in front of her along with the two brothers next to her. We sat around the campfire, our team on one side, and the three of them on the other side closest to the forest. We mostly sat quietly for the most part, both brothers not wanting anything to do with us it seems. So far, all we really knew where their names, the older boy Hiro, His younger brother Kame, and the beautiful girl, properly named Sakura. We traded some formalities about ourselves like our names and such, and about our mission. But after all that it was mainly a few random conversations that had nothing to do with the mission or about each other. I really wanted to know where they originated from, why they are out here, and especially how they knew Naruto… I was so eager to ask them all of my questions… But I never gathered the courage to ask them any of those questions… I sort of sat there hoping someone would ask them for me…

"Hello?" continued Kiba, "Did you hear me?" he asked waving his hand.

"Oh, I'm sorry… I was just thinking…" she replied snapping out of her hypnotic stare. Her voice was flat and tired, she must have been exhausted from her travels

She didn't say anything else, only a quiet and semi-windy night followed her last words. I looked into the fire alongside the three travelers, listening to the awkward silence that plagued our campsite.

Earlier, we had decided to pitch up camp here in front of the chasm. For one thing, we didn't want to loose our first lead to finding Naruto… and at the moment we felt it was far too late to even search for a decent campsite. Luckily they complied and we settled here together around the campfire. When we bumped into each other… I had countless questions for her, and this moment to camp with each other presented the perfect opportunity to ask all the questions I wanted. But now… the questions I wanted to ask just didn't come to me like when I first met her... I was scared to ask them.

The crater behind us let off an eerie feeling, it cut deep into our bones and it sent chills down our spines. Looking at it in the dark, I think pitching camp up here was probably not a very good idea.

The wind in the crater howled again, it was long and extended and the sound reminded me of only death and self destruction. It gave off an even more depressing feeling, and with it… came memories from long past. I began to remember a number of unhappy events in my lifetime. It was like the crater was haunted with ones bitter emotions.

I looked back to the group of three across the fire from us. It seemed the chilling winds were affecting them as well… I guess I'm not alone suffering the affects of the crater's aura.

"Tch… this sucks…" grunted the younger boy, spitting to the side. He got up after his last remark and headed for the woods behind him.

The other Sakura looked down, ashamed of Kame's sudden disrespectful remark.

"H-hey Kame, Where are you going??" questioned the older brother.

"To the little boy's room and to get some more firewood… got a problem?" he growled.

"H-hey… Wait!" stuttered Hiro, as he quickly got up in pursuit of his brother, "Don't go alone! What if there are wolves out there?" he said, clearly responding to his new fear of canines.

Eventually they disappeared behind the thick vegetation of the forest, it fell quiet again, the crickets were slowly coming alive in the early night, and the wind was still blowing over us… It's going to be cold tonight again…

"I'm so sorry about those two..." she finally said, sure that the two boys were out of hearing distance, "I'm afraid those two don't like Shinobi very much."

Nobody responded to her right away, I felt awkward to see her finally say something and have nobody else respond to her, "It's ok… how do you three know each other?" I asked trying to get a meaningful conversation started… again, "You and those two don't seem to be related."

She took a breath in getting ready to speak.

Looks like we are going to get somewhere this time.

"Well, I guess it would pass some time while we wait for them to return." She began, "They aren't my blood brothers as you can tell, I've known those two for nearly my whole life… and I don't know life any different without them. They might as well be my brothers I suppose."

"Orphans?" I asked.

She took another breathe, "Yes, they never knew their parents… all they had to go on were rumors and whatever theories about their parents they could imagine. I can still remember them asking me every once in awhile if I had ever met them… Unfortunately, I couldn't give them a desirable answer…"

"How long have you known them?" asked Ino, also getting into the conversation.

… A slight pause…

"I first met them when I was about three years old… I met them for the first time in a trade town surrounded by mostly water. Hiro was on the sidewalk cradling his baby brother, Kame in his arms. Hiro, held his brother in his lap and hovered over him to protect him from the suns rays. I pointed them out to my mother as we walked down the street with our groceries… and our hearts went out to them. With little debate, we took them home with us…"

"I see…" I said picturing that sad image… a child cradling his baby brother…

From the way she described the trade town, it must have been a poor area, for two orphan children to be out there in the street like that.

I was compelled to ask, "What town where you from?"

It looked like it pained her to answer my question, "I don't remember to name of my town… I forced myself to forget that place years ago… But it was a poor town surrounded by large bodies of water."

And out of nowhere, it hit me… I wasn't one hundred percent about it, but I was sure that the town she was talking about was Tazuna-san's town. But I wasn't sure if I was right or wrong.

"The last of that place I remember," She continued, "is that the mayor had just begun construction of the bridge across the water in hopes of restoring our poor town. To this day I still don't know if construction of that bridge has even finished… and I could care less." she said in spite.

That sealed the deal, I knew where she was from. I wanted to open my mouth, tell her that her hometown finished the bridge and is, from what I heard, a booming and bustling trade port. In fact its probably the most important trade route for all nations.

But as much as I wanted to tell her to good news, I didn't say a word, an unknown force not allowing me to speak a word.

"You're talking about the land of waves," said Sasuke-kun taking the words right out of my mouth, "that place did complete the bridge three years ago."

I looked back over to her to see her reaction. She replied bluntly, "I see… That's good for them."

I wanted to so much… so very much to tell her I was part of a mission that changed all of that. My team was the thing that allowed the completion of the bridge, But I didn't say a damn thing… but something in the back of my mind told me it wouldn't make a difference.

So instead I said something completely off topic, "Your mother sounded like a kind and beautiful person…" I said making the assumption. I figured she would be because Sakura-san was so pretty… and I figured she must have gotten her looks from her mother.

I saw her face light up a little bit, "Yes, she was very pretty, and she was always so positive, protective and caring… She was almost never angry, and she had an uncanny ability to just make you smile, even when you were in the foulest moods… we loved her very much." She said, almost describing someone else in particular…

It seemed she took after her mother personality wise in a way. "You are lucky to have her…"

She nodded, "Since then, we raised Hiro and Kame as is if they were our own blood… they were the brothers I never had… and the sons my mother never had… and we took care of them as such. For eleven years… it was like that, we lived relatively happy occasionally searching for any clues to their parent's whereabouts… until one day…" she halted, her voice shaking and becoming unstable.

"Until what?" asked Hinata-chan.

I saw her lower lip quiver a little bit, "My father… he was never home because he was always working for his terrible boss as a bodyguard or something. My mother said that was a suitable career considering he wasn't a very… kind, man…And I agreed one hundred percent." She said a slight feeling of hate in her words.

"Why was that?" I asked.

I felt rather guilty barging into someone else's past like this… but to be honest… this is probably the longest conversation we have had since we met them earlier in the day.

She took a couple of deep breathes before she spoke, "My mother and father would always argue about everything, which was unlike my mother… because she was so peace loving. But even so… such arguments would be somewhat rare… He would be home once every few months or so from working for his boss… and that one random day he would come for a visit, he would despise both Hiro and Kame… one time he kicked them out for a few nights on his night off. He was never really happy that my mother and I took them both in and cared for them both… He always made fun of them… yelled at them… called them terrible names… all in all, he just hated them just because they were less fortunate and they were "freeloading" off of us.."

"I'm sorry to hear that…" I said trying to sympathize with her.

"Oh, no no… you don't need to apologize… like I said, my father wasn't a very nice person…" she said lifting her hand to us, as she did… I noticed something… there was something very faint on her wrist…

"Sakura-san," I said, "What is that scar on your wrist?" I asked as I focused on the… scar, on her wrist.

I saw her almost jump in response to what I said, clearly it was something with another story behind it. And from the way she responded, it was probably something she was trying to hide.

"Oh, it's nothing really… I fell along time ago, and I got this scar… see?" she said showing her wrist a little more clearly, making it sound like it wasn't such a big deal. But from what it looked like… it was… It looked like a deep cut that never healed correctly… hence the noticeable scar on her wrist… it didn't look like any accident or self inflicted wound neither…

I only came to one conclusion, and I'm pretty sure Shikamaru came to the same one as I did as well.

A father that was never home… And arguing parents... "Sakura-san… Your father… Did he abuse you and your mother?" I asked, not even thinking about what I was saying.

She slowly lowered her head down, her hair coming over her face covering it slightly. As she did so, I realized what I said. I felt so stupid for being so insensitive… I felt like punching myself, "He never hit me too hard… I didn't care what he did to me…"

Oh god… why did I have to ask?

"I was only worried for my mother, Hiro, and Kame… I feared he would hit them harder than he would me… So I took responsibility for whatever the problem was…"

"Oh god…" I said under my breath. I felt stupid and insensitive.

"So… that scar… it was from your father wasn't it?" asked Shikamaru from behind his folded hands.

"… Yes…"

"Where are your parents now?" he asked lowering his hands to his lap.

She took her time to respond to Shikamaru's question.

"I have not seen my father in nearly four years…… and my mother is dead…" she said melancholy.

"What happened?" I asked shocked to hear her mother was deceased.

She took a breath, "One day… about four years ago.. My father came home, drunk." She took another few moments before she continued, "He had come home unexpectedly that night… We were having dinner when he had suddenly barged through the front door."

…I didn't like where this was going…

"My mother tried to calm him down… but, he only threw her against the wall, and held her up against it, _"You don't live here anymore."_ he would say, the smell of strong alcohol in his breathe as he began to speak of other nonsense. He then turned his attention to Hiro and Kame, _"You dirty rats, what are you two still doing in my house? I thought I got rid of you years ago…"_ he would ramble on. This went on for a few more hours…"

We gave quick glances at each other… But Sasuke-kun had his eyes focused on Sakura-san, almost… amused by her story.

"Eventually, we found out he had been replaced by some Ninja and his partner. Apparently they were so strong that my father along side a number of henchmen were also fired, and he had been drinking to drown away his troubles… in his drunken state, he had sold me and my mother to a brothel…"

…We gasped in horror.

She continued, "My mother and I put up whatever fight we could against him as he dragged us out of the house… but he was to strong. Hiro and Kame tried to fight him as well… but he easily threw them off. But that wasn't the most terrible part of all…"

We were afraid to ask what happened next… A minute or so passed by, I finally mustered up the courage to ask, "What?"

"We were halfway to the brothel, yelling and making all sorts of noises along the way, Hiro and Kame still doing their best to try and free us from his grip. Finally my father had enough of Hiro and Kame, and struck a low blow. He told them that he knew their parents while he dragged us along. Immediately they stopped fighting him. My mother and I tried to tell them it was a lie, that we never knew them…But my father, he said he worked with his boss in dark deals and contracts and that he knew who killed his parents. _"Those fucking Ninjas that took my job are the ones who killed your parents a long time ago… all those damn ninjas are the same… blame them for what's happening, not me!" _. I could see the looks on their faces, horror… terror… sorrow… whatever it was… it looked terrible. My father began to laugh manically… I had enough of it…" she said bringing her hand to her mouth covering her hiccups of sorrow.

She was tearing now at this point… whatever she did to get free of her fathers grasp… it must have been desperate… "What did you do?" I asked dreadfully.

She sniffled before she answered, "I grabbed the knife on his belt, and stabbed his hand. He let me go immediately, and he made a grab for the knife. My mother tried to stop him, but…"

Like on queue, the wind howled in the crater, "He got hold of the knife, and he managed to make a pretty deep cut on my wrist, as you can see…" she said extending her wrist again, "Without thinking of anything else, I grabbed Hiro and Kame and made a sprint away from him… I ran away leaving my mother behind, I fled and tried to put him behind me, fear and adrenaline rushing in my veins, hoping my mother would be alright... I put him as far behind me as I could… and as I got further and further away… I could still hear my mom struggling with him… and then… I heard that god awful shriek of my mother's voice…"

I lifted my hand to my mouth in unison with Ino and Hinata-chan, shocked by what we had just learned… Kiba and Shikamaru only looked to the side trying to not picture the events laid before them. Sasuke-kun continued to listen undeterred by the story.

Tears flowed feely from her eyes now… she continued to hiccup uncontrollably trying so hard not to cry. I wanted to say something, walk over and sit by her side to try and ease her pain a little bit. And once more… I did nothing.

She calmed down enough to speak again, "We hid from my father for a few days, hiding in the streets hoping the next person around the corner wouldn't be my father. And one day while we were hiding we heard some people talk about some murder on the street we had run from.. I prayed and prayed it wasn't my mother… but as I asked around more… I found out it was an unidentified woman who was stabbed multiple times and beaten beyond recognition…" she continued her voice shaking all the more as she did so. "But even so the papers and the people said she was unidentified… my instinct told me it was her… I didn't want to believe it at all…"

Good god…

She sniffled a little bit more but continued on, "Since then… I always questioned… I should have not made that grab for the knife… If I hadn't, then we would have just gotten to the brothel and just… runaway… that would have been much simpler… But I didn't so Hiro, Kame, and myself, ran away from that town surrounded by water… we took a small boat to the opposite side of the water, wandering the woods, passing by other towns, begging, trying to get by… I promised I would take care of Hiro and Kame in honor of my mother… but sometimes, they would be taking care of me instead… And whenever I tried to do something good for them… it would always end up going to hell…" she said sniffling more.

I felt rotten to the core… I made a lot of mistakes recently… and reopening an old scar was going to be added to the list… God damnit…

"And… almost every passing day I felt like I should commit suicide… I felt insufficient to take care of Hiro and Kame like my mother did… I felt like I had made the worst mistake ever. If I didn't then none of this would have ever happened…" she stopped there… she sounded like she had enough of her own story…

We took a few minutes to let the story settle in. the only things we heard were the wind and the fire crackling in front of us, she cried quietly now… and even the crickets around us sounded like they were shocked by her story.

She stopped crying momentarily, "And, only a couple of weeks ago… we met him." she finally said… feeling the energy to continue her story…

Him? Naruto? I thought as my ears perked up in response to mere mention of him.

"You mean… Naruto, Right?" I asked feeling a little bit eager.

"Yes… We found him lying in that crater behind you when we came empty handed searching for wild fruits and vegetables one stormy night… He was shivering and cold. He was so close to death."

"What did you do with Naruto-kun?" asked Hinata-chan also wanting to know more of Naruto.

"Of course, we took him into our cabin… We couldn't leave him out there in the cold thunderstorm… But as we carried him to our cabin, he was mumbling something in his sleep… he was always calling, "Sakura-chan… Sakura-chan…" I thought he was calling out to me at first… but later I found out he wasn't calling my name… He was calling to you… Wasn't he?" she asked as she faced me.

I felt apprehension as she asked, "W-what makes you say that?" I asked.

"Because… He also mentioned the name Sasuke… And that must be you… isn't it?" she said as she looked over at Sasuke-kun. Sasuke-kun grunted and looked away, not responding to her question.

Impressive, smart and beautiful… just like all of us beautiful women…

"So what did you do afterwards?" asked Shikamaru trying to get some more details on Naruto.

She wiped some remaining tears from her eyes, "Well, when we dried him up and laid him in Hiro's bed, he was still mumbling to himself, like he was arguing with someone else… it was very disturbing."

… What does that mean?

"He even made the mistake of taking us for angels…I guess he must have been confused or something due to his severe cold." she finished as she giggled a little bit some tears still in her eyes.

Some of us broke into a very light laughter, me included… But my chuckle was a fake one… the part where she told us about Naruto arguing in his sleep bothered me a lot. Was it his illness making him delusional? Or was he really talking with somebody else?

"How long did he stay in your house?" asked Shikamaru as we finished our light laughter.

Finally she had ceased her sorrow tone, she sounded almost energized talking about Naruto, "Well probably a week or two after that rainy day. He always wanted to help us around the house. Whether it was manual labor or fixing something, or chasing off some wolfs, he did it all… He said he did it to repay us for what we did for him that night." She chuckled slightly, "When we were bringing home some firewood back to our cabin one night, he was always telling us to never give up and keep going, when Hiro, Kame, and I were totally drained of energy… He gave me energy to keep going that extra step."

I lowered my head a little smiling lightly… That definitely sounded like Naruto…

"He was so… bright… confident… on the outside. But I knew he was hiding something…"

Hiding something? I asked myself as I lifted my head back to her.

She looked to the night sky, "Sometimes… when I saw him alone, he had the strangest look on his face… it wasn't a blank stare or anything… it looked like he was sad… depressed… From then on, I knew for sure he was hiding something."

I felt some stirring in my stomach.

"Sometimes I would approach him about it… but he said it was nothing… I knew he was lying…"

Naruto…

"But I never let it get to me… all I knew was, he is a good person… so bright and kind to us. He almost reminded me of how my mother… To be honest, I don't know why… but I felt… relieved, when Naruto came into our lives…" she said a slight blush on her cheeks. "Whenever he spoke, I felt like all my troubles were a thing of the past and something I shouldn't dwell on…" she brought her eyes back to the campfire, "Our Cabin wasn't the greatest place… but it was home. Naruto-kun however, came to the conclusion it is no place for _"young people like us." _He said that we should head to Konoha one day. He said it was better there."

I was a little surprised to hear that. Konoha had despised him all his life, and yet… he recommended it as a home.

She began to speak again, "I asked him if he wanted to come along… But instead he gently declined, saying he had something very important to do before he went anywhere. I never thought it was so serious, but it apparently was when we found him missing today."

Today? So we had just missed him??

I shot over to Shikamaru, and he looked at me right back and shook his head side to side. He didn't need to say anything, I knew he would say,_"its already nightfall and his trail would be cold"_ or something like that.

"When we found out he was missing," she continued, "We felt it wouldn't be the same without Naruto-kun… So we left our Cabin… and here we are."

I felt… strange, half of me was sort of frustrated…

I was frustrated to know that we had just missed Naruto by one day… how he was so close, and then suddenly… so far away.

But at the same time I felt relieved, I was relieved to know that he was still the same… sort of.

The same Energetic and kind Naruto I've known… still helping people even in such a depressed state… it only reminded me of how selfless and humble he was when it came to helping people. Even me…

"Damnit… we just barely missed him!" said Ino "Hey Shikamaru shouldn't we go after him now??"

Shikamaru let out a sigh, "No… We have no idea which direction he has gone, and therefore, we cannot pick up a trail."

"Aw come on!" said Ino sulking a little bit.

"Besides, its too dark to see anything. I think itll be safer to camp here for the night." Said Shikamaru.

That wasn't the case at all. I knew he didn't want to leave Hiro Kame and Sakura-san out here. I knew he wanted to search for Naruto as much as we did, but I also knew he didn't want to leave Sakura-san and the two brothers out here alone either. I guess he just came to the conclusion that we can find Naruto later, Sakura-san and the brothers need us right now.

Suddenly our group broke into a ramble of random conversation. Mostly debates about whether or not to go out and search for him. Shikamaru sat there annoyed by the whole situation as always.

Sasuke-kun had enough of the debates within our team, "I'm going to search for the kids… they're probably lost." He said as he disappeared behind the bushes.

I was the only one along with Sakura-san not speaking or debating. We sat across from each other. I have had enough of sitting here and asking questions I felt like I had to make up for making her spill her heart out like she did earlier. I got up and decided to sit next to her.

"Hi." I said as I seated myself next to her.

"Hello." She said in a kind tone.

"Isn't it funny that we have the same names?" I asked in a joking manner trying to start a conversation with her.

"Yes it is…" she said giggled with me.

For the first time in a while, I felt somewhat… calm. I knew that Naruto was alright now. He was taken care of by Sakura-san.

"Sakura-chan?" she called.

"What is it Sakura-san?" I responded… Boy, one could get confused when there are two Sakura's.

She began to laugh, "It is funny that we have the same names."

"Yeah."

"So tell me…" she said still laughing a little bit, "How long have you known Naruto?"

* * *

like always any sort of positive criticism is welcome. 


	10. OLD CH9

Its been a long while. yes yes i know... i take way too long... But this time is swear i have an excuse. I lost my laptop, (the one with all of my docs including my chapters) Thats why i had my friend help in writing this chapter. the first half are my own ideas.. and somewhere along the middle through the end is hers. i liked her ideas, maybe you will too..

finals are finally over, and i got a new car no thanks to my insurance... Other than that things are looking up!

sorry for the long wait!

(there are probably a couple of spelling or gramatical errors on this one, we spent probably about four hours writing this one tonight. 1/28/08. But please excuse them, we were far to lazy to go back and re-check them... besides you guys were starving for a new chapter. )

* * *

I stared outside of my window aimlessly searching the street below me, searching for anyone… or anything that even led to the slightest hints to him. At times, I fooled myself into thinking I saw a little blonde ball of hair pass by underneath me… but it was only my hopes and imagination getting the best of me. For the first time, in I think my whole life, I truly felt this lonely. 

The two years Sasuke-kun and Naruto weren't here, I was lonely. But not like this. At the very least, I knew where Naruto and Sasuke-kun were, I knew positively Naruto was alright out there with Jiraiya-sama. Sasuke-kun however was my main source of worry. His life for all I knew was in constant threat from Orochimaru, and he could have been dead for all I knew… and at one point or another I nearly panicked just thinking about Sasuke-kun being in such a situation without me knowing for sure…

…But for the most part during Sasuke-kun's absence… I wasn't really all that scared. Probably because of the intense training I was going through. There was no time for me to worry and cry over Sasuke-kun at that time… but that wasn't the only thing that kept me almost worry free.

"_Ill never go back on my word, I'll bring back Sasuke! That's a promise of a lifetime!"_

Those few words rang in my head whenever I was crying at night…That's probably why I never felt so scared when Sasuke-kun was gone. Naruto promised he would bring him back, and no matter how lame, crazy and unlikely it sounded… I believed him. And my faith in him was rewarded with Sasuke-kun's return home. I never realized I had so many things I wanted to say to him…

But this time… I didn't have anybody to promise me that Naruto would be ok. I had nobody to say he was so close and that we shouldn't give up. I had nobody to suddenly yell out of nowhere, "What we were doing here not doing anything?! We could be out searching for him right now!" I had nobody to make a promise to me to bring him home safe and sound… That's why, I feel so lonely and scared right now…

…Especially since I was the reason for him running away…

…And it seems… Even the world itself seemed to miss Naruto too. Ever since we came to this town two days ago, it had been raining nonstop with only short periods where we could be able to see patches of sunlight or stars, sometimes it would be hard to distinguish day from night in this heavy rain. It was like the sunshine was taken away from the world… or at least, forced away.

I put my forehead on the cool glass of my room window and let out a deep and depressed sigh fogging up my window, "Where are you?" I said quietly to myself.

I didn't want to go on missions anymore. This mission without Naruto changed my whole perspective on how a mission should be executed. Even though I had Sasuke-kun, Ino and Hinata-chan along with me for the ride, it just wasn't the same anymore. Even they couldn't fill this… gap that I was feeling. Back then, a mission was something that could either be very simple, or extremely difficult that would test the very limits of our very being…

But now they were extremely difficult missions that tested the very limits of our being… without Naruto…

They felt… hopeless now almost like they had no purpose anymore... He isn't here to verbally cheer us on, he isn't here to scream and yell and be annoying…and to me… a mission needed Naruto, even thought sometimes the missions were failures. The others probably wouldn't understand, but if they had gone on an extended mission with Naruto on a regular basis, then their perspectives on how a mission should be done would probably be altered as well.

"What would I say to you when I finally see you again?" I mumbled under my breath, "Sorry? Forgive me? Come back home?" …What could I say to him? What would anybody say to him after they did something like what I did?

I listened to myself babble on… I felt stupid, even though I have been doing this nearly every day now. And at the same time I felt like I was deteriorating with every passing day… I felt like I was slipping into insanity.

"Sakura-chan?" came a muffled voice from behind me. I nearly thought it was Naruto calling me. "Yeah? What is it Hinata?" I said still leaning my head on my window.

"I've been knocking on your door for nearly two minutes now, are you okay?"

Strange, I didn't hear her knocking on my door, "Yeah… I'm okay…" I gotta snap outta this.

She didn't say anything for a second, "Shikamaru wants us downstairs in the living room to have a meeting in a few minutes, okay?"

I slowly peeled my forehead off of my window, "Why?" I asked, my forehead still cold from leaning on the window.

"I think we are going to discuss the way our mission is going. Please get ready okay?" she said timidly as her voice slowly faded away down the hall.

I continued to stare at the people walking in the street below my window… they all seemed so normal and carefree despite the pouring rain outside… I wish I could be like them again…

I got up and began to get ready to have our meeting, "At least we got to rent this Condo for a while…" I said to myself trying to cheer myself up.

-

I walked down the stairs of our condo building slowly, each step making a lame creaking sound as I took a step. I felt a little drained from last night, even though I had a roof over my head last night and a soft and warm bed to sleep in, I would always drift into thoughts of Naruto and how he was doing in this cold weather.

"Sakura, it's about time you got here." said Shikamaru standing in the living room.

I snapped out of my thoughts, "Yeah…"

I looked around the living room of our condo, I was still getting used to this place. The living room where everybody was at was large enough to hold us all, just one big square with enough room to fit six people including a giant ass dog. That was all really… we had no kitchen… only one door next in the living room for a bathroom, and upstairs we had a rather long hallway with convenient three bedrooms and another bathroom at the end of the hallway. The girls got each separate room and the Boys slept downstairs in their sleeping bags…

Inside the condo there wasn't much, two couches that faced each other on opposite ends of the condo living room, with a fireplace that was opposite to the front door. Other than that there was a staircase that led upstairs. Each bedroom didn't have much either each room had only a bed with a pillow and a wool blanket. Even though it wasn't much, we got lucky renting a place like this for free… This town is super Konoha Shinobi Friendly… and I'm not sure why exactly.

"Well, that's everybody who's anybody…" said Shikamaru making a quick head count with his eyes, "Now, I called you guys down here to review how our mission is going along as of now… and quite frankly, I don't like how its going…" he said sitting down onto the couch next to the bathroom door.

"Yeah," said Kiba taking a seat on the opposite end of the couch, "This mission is taking _way_ to long…" he said as he leaned his head back. Akamaru came panting next to him and laid down next to the arm of the couch. "And not only that… we haven't found shit in this town about Naruto."

Sasuke-kun grunted and leaned on the wall next to the front door next to a window in a cool fashion, unfazed or tired, "I think the mission is going on rather well…" he said sarcastically while holding his sword.

Ino and Hinata took a seat on another couch opposite to the one Shikamaru and Kiba sat in, both of them looked tired as well… I walked over and took a seat In between them and laid my head back like Kiba did.

We took a moment, a little quiet, only hearing the rain outside of our condo tapping against the windows around us and the fire in the fireplace crackling with embers, but it was still to quiet... I didn't like this silence, I never did especially since the mission started… I wished something would just break it and make it interesting.

"Well, Lets begin shall we?" said Shikamaru behind a lazy yawn, "How many days are we into this mission?"

Ino yawned, "Nine days…" said Ino in a tired tone.

…Nine days? That's all it's been?

"Tch." Grunted Kiba, "wasn't this mission supposed to take only about a week tops?" asked Kiba.

I looked over to Shikamaru who nodded while his head was leaning comfortably back against the couch, "I know… we are two days behind schedule… But I'm sure Sai has vouched for more time for us by now from the Hokage. I'm pretty sure he has enough common sense to know this mission will take a while."

I sighed a little bit feeling guilty not letting Sakura-san and her two brothers come along for the rest of the mission. I truly and honestly wanted to bring them along to help bring Naruto home… But Shikamaru was right; it would be far too dangerous considering we were Konoha Ninja. We could be attacked at any given moment by enemy Shinobi and put them in unnecessary danger.

So the day after we met them, we sent them to Konoha, with Sai as their escort… I could tell from the look on Sai's face that he wanted to stay with us and help find Naruto. But Sai being the obedient "tool" he was he obediently listened to our team leader and headed home with Sakura-san and her two brothers to Konoha… That was just over a week ago if I remember correctly… and it already feels like a lifetime ago. And that was the last time I have ever seen or heard of Sai, Sakura-san, Hiro, and Kame.

…I hope they are doing well in Konoha..

"So… What are the plans then Nara?" asked Sasuke-kun in a cold tone.

I felt some tension building up between them for a moment… but if I knew Shikamaru, he would try to avoid internal conflicts within the team because it would be too _troublesome_. And if I knew Shikamaru like everybody else did, than he would try avoid any sort of trouble.

"We continue our mission as planned… We'll give this town one more chance for any clues about him, and if we don't find anything today, we will move out tomorrow. We're not going to give up on this mission… not yet. We're not going to loose Naruto, not like we did with you…" said Shikamaru retaliating to Sasuke-kun's cold tone with an equally cold tone. That didn't sound like he wanted to avoid trouble to me…

Sasuke-kun chuckled, "Right… what makes you think you will succeed with Naruto as you did with me?" questioned Sasuke-kun in a tone that almost sounded like he wanted to pick a fight with Shikamaru.

Kiba stood up abruptly, "Hey man, back up… I don't like your attitude." He said pointing a finger at him.

Sasuke-kun was scaring more than usual today. Since he came as our backup, I felt an ominous feeling looming over him, like he had malicious intent planned or something. Even though he seemed to be helpful in this mission, I feel as though he has other plans. Or…Maybe Sasuke-kun was gone for a whole lot longer than I thought.

…Is this how he was back when we were Genin?

"Well..." I said breaking in trying to ease the tension, "How long are we going to stay in this Condo? Let's go into town to a restaurant… there was one I saw one as we were coming into town. It's not to far away and I could go for a warm meal about now. I'm starving!" I said in a somewhat cheerful tone.

"Y-yeah!" said Hinata-chan, I guess sensing the tension as well. "I'm hungry too."

Shikamaru sighed, "Alright then… We'll have breakfast in town, and we'll spread out and find any clues we can in this town… This is the first town we have hit on our mission, and who knows? We actually might find something here."

I heard Sasuke-kun Grunt as he opened the door to the outside, "Come on Sakura, and Show us this restaurant."

-

The rain fell around me, splashing onto the sides of my legs a little as I walked down the wet and muddy street. The air was cold and brisk to my lungs, I lifted the hood of my rain coat so that I could look up to the dark cloudy sky that was pouring water on top of this little town. My thoughts wandered, and I only thought of Naruto again. Was he sheltered today? Is he eating well?

"Sakura! In here!" said Kiba inside of a small Ramen stand.

"Ah! Okay!" I said as I quickly ran through the curtains and into the warm stand.

"Alright boy, you wait out here… Ill get you something alright?" said Kiba talking to Akamaru outside.

I heard Akamaru woof in reply to Kiba as he came inside. I felt kind of bad leaving Akamaru outside in the rain, but Akamaru is a strong dog… maybe he will be fine…

Inside, it was fairly large. Large enough to hold at least three full sized Party's like ours. It had three large tables inside for each party, and a bar where individual customers could sit and order in front of the cooks… and it smelled of Ramen and Miso… Naruto loves Miso Ramen….

"Sakura-chan, come here sit next to Me." said Hinata-chan waving me over to an empty seat next to her.

I nodded and headed to the round table where everybody was sitting. It wasn't too crowded inside… only our team and a couple of individual customers at the bar slurping away at their Ramen Bowls… Their loud slurping only brought images of Naruto to my head… and I nearly mistook one of them to be him. But none of them could have been Naruto… Naruto wasn't sixty years old or a woman… I chuckled at myself for even thinking somebody that old would resemble Naruto.

…I'm really loosing it aren't I?

"Welcome to Naruto's Ramen bar! How may I help you?" said a cheerful waitress… Wait, what did she just say??

I jolted my head to her, "What did you say?!" I blurted out.

She was surprised at my sudden reaction to her, "I-I said welcome to Nakasu's Bar… and… and how may I help you?" she said shaking with the menu's in her hands ready to fall.

"Sakura-chan… are you okay?" asked Hinata-chan placing her hand on my shoulder.

I felt so embarrassed; everybody in the bar was starring at me, the workers, the chefs, and the customers even though there weren't that many… I was still embarrassed, "Sorry… I… I thought you said something else…" I brought my hands to my face to rub my eyes, but I was really trying to hide myself behind them… maybe I didn't get enough rest last night, "Sorry… I'm just… a little tired, I didn't mean to scare you." I said as I hid my face behind my hands.

… Heh, how the hell could I mix up Nakasu, and Naruto? I'm such in idiot…

"Sorry about that," said Kiba who was nearest to the waitress, "We'll take Six Large bowls of Miso Ramen please… Oh and a bowl of Rib bones with rice on top please."

"Alrighty," said the cheerful waitress, back into a comfortable state, "Um, are the… ribs for another party member?" asked the waitress writing down our orders.

"Nah, It's for my dog Akamaru… He likes the rib bones with rice, that weird dog… I swear he thinks he's human sometimes…" he said joking with the waitress.

I heard the waitress chuckle awkwardly and walk away to get our orders… I still hid my face behind my face almost falling asleep behind them. "Sakura." called Shikamaru from across the table.

I brought my hands down, "Yeah?"

He only looked at me with concerned eyes, "Are you okay?" he asked.

I nodded, "Yeah… I just thought she said… No, I'm fine… really."

Everybody around the table stared at me, not believing what I said, "Look, when we finish eating, I want you to head back to the condo we rented and take a nap okay?" said Shikamaru placing both elbows on the table.

I slowly shook my head behind my hands, "No… I'm fine really… I can go on and look for clues with everybody else."

Ino placed her hand on my shoulder as well, "Here Sakura, wipe your eyes…"

I lowered my hands, and that's when I realized my hands were soaked. Not from the rain outside… the moisture on my hands was warm… I didn't even realize it, but I was crying…

"I'm sorry, I'm fine… Really I am." I took the napkin Ino was handing me and wiped my eyes.

When did I start to cry? How did I start to cry? Did the mere mention of Naruto's name from a complete stranger bring me to tears?

I sat there a while longer wiping the tears out of my eyes. As I did so, I could feel the eyes of my teammates glaring at me with worry. I didn't feel comfortable at all…

I leant forward and placed my elbows on the table, "I'm okay now… honestly." I said as I quickly hid my tears. "Now, Lets just eat and do our best today and look for some clues!" I said in a fake cheerful manner.

"Alright, six bowls of Miso Ramen…" said the waitress bringing a large tray with our bowls.

"Hey, what about the ribs for Akamaru?" asked Kiba.

"Don't worry; we already placed it outside for your dog… He's already eating them as we speak." said the waitress placing a hot bowl in front of me.

The bowl looked delicious, it had lots of noodles, some grilled pork… and it was neatly decorated with some seaweed and green onions… with two slices of naruto in it.

The steam of the ramen came through to my nostrils; it smelled as good as it looked. The smell of ramen reminded me of Ichiraku back at home… and that reminded me of Naruto slirping away sloppily at his noodles, a look of happiness and content on face.

I felt like crying again, "Itadakimasu!" I quickly said as I dove into the bowl of ramen… it was delicious.

I felt like giving up… I felt like I was never going to find him and say things to him I wanted to say… But something inside me wouldn't allow it, even though my mind and body wanted to give up so badly…

-

It continued to rain outside… it wasn't going to let up anytime soon. The sky was dark gray and signaled for a long and heavy storm to come along. I walked alone in the semi-busy street. The people around here were far to busy to ask questions too. They were either shoving each other to get to the front of a line, or they were trying to squeeze into an already packed hotel room trying to find some shelter from this rain. These people must be tourists. We were definitely lucky to rent out that condo we found earlier…

"What the hell is this?! You don't even have enough money to stay one minute in here. Get out of here!" I heard in the crowd. It was louder than the rest of the hustle and bustle I was hearing around me. The crowd in front of the hotel began to shift in a direction, obviously giving way to the fighting townsfolk.

My curiosity was getting the best of me and maybe it would take my mind of off Naruto if I knew what was going on, so I merged myself into the circling crowd and tried to get a view of what was happening. "Please sir…" pleaded a skinny man on his knees, he wore rags that looked like that were going to disintegrate in the rain. "We need this room… We have come all the way from the rice country and my mother is sick… we need this room at least for tonight."

…How sad…

The larger man, a little better dressed than the skinnier man, standing in front of him kicked him onto the muddy floor, "You think I care? Half the people in this damn town need a place to stay and at the very least they have money! You don't have any, so you're not welcome here!" he yelled again kicking the other man on the floor again. Clearly, this larger man was the owner of the hotel.

"Please sir," pleaded the man on the ground, "Just one night… I beg you… I swear ill pay you back someday." he lifted a hand to protect himself from the man who was kicking him.

"Stop it!" yelled a woman in the crowd. She shoved herself through the crowd and threw herself over the man on the floor protecting him, "Stop hurting my husband! We will leave. Just leave us alone! Please!" she yelled, her voice trembling in fear.

"Chou! Where are you?" came an elderly voice in the crowd. It seemed the family of the skinny man was coming to his aid. The crowd made way for the elderly woman as she struggled to walk towards her son lying on the ground. "Leave my boy alone. We will leave peacefully…" said the elderly woman as she came behind the large man.

The larger man looked to the old lady and gave her a very dirty look. I didn't like it, and neither did the people watching. "Who are you old hag?" asked the large man.

"I am a mere traveling old woman traveling with her son and daughter in-law. We are of no importance to you… So please let us leave." She said without flinching.

I was surprised at how the elderly woman stared the taller and larger man eye for eye without even flinching. But the way she looked, she was just about ready to collapse from something. She was pale and she was poorly clothed in thin rags. She has no reason to be standing in this downpour…

"I'll teach you too look at me like that you dirty old whore!" yelled the man raising his arm.

"No!" yelled the man and woman on the ground.

I couldn't just stand by and watch any more, I wasn't going to just stand by and watch this happen. In my head, I thought what Naruto would have done in this situation… I took action and stood in the path of the man's mighty swing. The back of his hand connected with the palm of mine… it was a rather weak attack from someone his size. I was expecting better.

"What the?! Who the hell are you??" stammered the man as I clenched my grip on his hand tighter. He flinched in pain… he was all talk and no walk he crumbled at the mere sign of pain.

"I am a stranger looking for someone important… But I won't just stand by and watch you hit people who are weaker than you are…" I growled at him. I clenched my grip on his fist tighter, I felt something pop in his hand. The man let out a gurgling scream of pain. "Let go! Let go!" he screamed trying to wriggle free from my grip, "You're breaking it! You're breaking my hand! Stop!"

"You mean like this?" I asked as I felt more popping noises in my hand. If I had to quess, I'd say I broke just about every bone in his hand give or take a few. I released him and he went straight into the ground cradling his broken hand. He looked at me, his eyes a fiery red color in them signifying he truly wanted to kill me… he could try…

"You bitch…" he mumbled as he looked up to me.

"Shut up…" I said to him, "You think you are better than these people here? You're three times their size, and you decide to beat them up… What kind of Hotel owner does this to customers?"

The man growled at me as he cradled his hand, "They had no money… I couldn't let them stay…"

"So you decide to kick them out and humiliate them in front of the town for being poor? You already have good business here and from the looks of it, you have a lot of money. And you couldn't even spare one small room for only one night? You… are the worst kind of trash… the ones who think they are high and mighty and treat people who are poorer than they are like trash. You claim that these people are the trash you hate so much, and in reality… they themselves are the trash that they hate so much…

I turned around; I couldn't stand to look at this pathetic man any more. The woman in front of me was shivering in the rain, and she looked like her legs were about the buckle, "Listen, Obaa-chan, I have a condo at the end of town that my friends and I are renting out… You and your family can come stay there for a while." I said as I took my rain coat off and put it over her.

The skinny man scrambled around and came to the old woman, "Mom! Mom, are you okay? Did he hit you?" the woman who was protecting him came shortly behind him asking the same questions as the man.

"Come… I'll take you guys to the condo I am staying at…" I said as I pushed a path through the crowd, "Move it!" I yelled trying to clear a path.

The large man was still cradling his hand from what I saw, "Ill get you for this you bitch! Ill get you for this!" I heard him yell as we weaved through the crowd.

-

"Oh, thank you… Thank you so very much!" said the woman sitting in front of the fireplace, "You are so kind… How can we ever repay you?" she asked warming her hands in front of it.

I smiled at her, "Oh, don't worry about it… just worry about drying off in front of the fire okay?"

The skinnier man sat closest to the elderly woman, "Mom… How are you feeling?" I heard him whisper to her. "Oh I am just fine… maybe a little chilly but I am fine…"

"Here, these are my friend's towels but I'm sure they won't mind you guy's using them for now." I said as I handed them Kiba and Ino's towel from their bags. "I'm sorry, but we really don't have anything to eat in this condo… all I can offer you are some towels and blankets."

The man waved his hand side to side, "Oh it's quite alright." said the man taking one of the towels, "We have gone a few days without food before, I think we can handle it. And just one night here will be more than enough for us." He said as he began to dry off his mother with the towel I gave him.

"Chou… I am already dry, you should worry about yourself or your wife once in a while." said the elderly woman.

"You should listen to your mother, honey." said the woman taking her towel and drying her husband, "Your still soaking wet you idiot."

The man tried to struggle, "No I'm fine Akane. We have to worry about finding a doctor for mother… She's still sick remember?"

…A doctor huh?

I kneeled next to the elderly woman, "Actually… I'm a medical Ninja from Konoha… I can help you." I said placing my hand over the woman's forehead.

"Oh, bless you…" said the woman, "I'm sorry to bother you, but could you look to my husbands wounds as well? He took a few hard kicks himself."

I nodded, "Sure… Just let me check your mother's condition first."

The man let out a deep sigh of relief. They must be going through some very rough times…

"I'm fine really…" insisted the old woman, "I'm worried more about you Chou."

The man shook his head side to side, "No, I'm fine mom…" this was a family of humble people…

… Only a minor fever… I'd say she has a cold at the worst, and she's not so pale anymore. Other than that… I don't think she has any serious problems… "She's fine." I said finally, "She only has a small fever, but it should go away with some rest."

I saw their faces light up instantly, "Oh thank you! We've been so worried about my mother's health since she started to cough when we were on the bridge a few days ago… Oh thank goodness."

I smiled… it felt really good to help these people out… They looked like they were going through hell.

The old lady turned to me, "Arent you worried that the hotel manager will come after you?"

I shook my head, "No," I lifted my arm and flexed my arm, "I may not look like it, but I am actually quite strong." I said winking at them in a playful manner. "Now, is there anything else I can do for you people?"

They all protested at once, "No, what your doing is already enough… By the way, My name is Chou, this is my wife, Akane, and this is my mother, Chiyoko…" said the man introducing himself.

… Chiyoko-san… What a familiar and pretty name…

"Nice to meet you," I said bowing my head to them, "I am Haruno Sakura, A Leaf Shinobi from Konoha."

"Oh, A Ninja are you?" asked the old woman, "My husband used to be a Shinobi aswell…"

I saw Chou moan and bring his hand to his face, it seems Chiyoko-san has told this story a number of times…

Chiyoko-san brought her hand to her chin, "You know… I believe the person that saved us yesterday was a Ninja too… isn't that right Akane?" said the elderly woman, wrapping herself with her son in my sleeping bag. "Yes… I think so…" she said also wrapping herself with Ino's sleeping bag, "That boy… we owe a lot to him don't we?"

… Boy?

"What happened?" I asked sitting next to the Chou and checking his shoulders for bruises. "Oh, well you see… about four days ago, we were walking through the land of waves, when we were attacked by a group of bandits on a large bridge."

"Oh… I'm sorry to hear that." I said.

Akane shook her head, "No it's alright…When the bandits surprised us on the bridge, we lost all of our belongings and what little money we had over the side of the bridge. The bandits were sure to kill us…"

"That's when the boy came along and saved us." Said the elderly woman, "he fought them off bravely that he did… He used Ninjutsu that I have never seen before." She said in an excited tone, praising whoever it was that saved them…

"I see…" I said as I stood up, "Well Chou-san, you have no bruises, and nothing broken… you're as healthy as an Ox."

"Thank you…" he said calmly. "You just sit here and rest… I'm going to get some more sleeping bags so you guys can be warmer…" I said standing up.

"Oh, That Blonde boy was a strange one though… Even though he saved us and fought off the bandits… It almost looked like he was taking out his rage on the bandits… I don't think I have ever seen someone so angry before…" said the Chiyoko-san, "But when he fended them off, he only smiled at us gently and walked away without another word…"

…Blonde… No, it mustn't be him…

"He used such strange Ninjutsu too… He made countless copies of himself, and if I didn't know any better, they were real! Not illusions!" said the Chiyoko-san as if she was still reliving the moment.

…Countless copies?

"Yeah, and it was on the great Naruto bridge no less… I heard there was a great battle that took place with a similar person. Could if have been him?" asked Akane, "But then again, that battle on the Naruto bridge was only a rumor we heard in the land of waves."

… It can't be.

I came back to Chiyoko-san, "Did this boy… What did this boy look like Chiyoko-san?" she gave me a blank stare for a moment, "Well… He was about your age I suppose. He had a gentle face, even though he was fiercely fighting the bandits…"

I closed my eyes… I knew it was him… A gentle face even through the heat of battle… It had to be him, "Thank you…" I said smiling softly, "I know this may sound rash and hasty, but I want you to tell my friends to heard further west to the land of waves across the great Naruto Bridge… Tell them I will meet them there…"

I didn't hesitate to stand right up and leave… I didn't turn back around to hear them protest or ask questions… I knew where he was, or at least, the area he was in… I'm going to find him, and finally have a chance to say all the things I wanted to say to him for the longest time… "I'm sorry… Forgive me… Thank you… And I-…"

I brushed a raindrop from my face, "I guess ill tell him when I meet him…" I said to myself as I began to run west. West towards the bridge, West to Tazunas Town... and if I get lucky, west towards Naruto... I felt a new energy come over me, The depression I was feeling earlier this morning was diminishing, and I felt like nothing could stop me...

I was close to giving up today… But I'm glad I didn't…

* * *

How did you like my joint project for this chapter? please, feel free to leave reviews or positive flames 


	11. OLD CH10

Hey guys. not much to say here... cept im submitting this right in the middle of class. xD

just consider this one a continuation from the last chapter... its a little short.

for whatever its worth... Enjoy!

* * *

The rain that used to gently pelt me as I ran… suddenly became a hell of wind and water in a matter of hours… and I was right in the middle of it fighting my way towards the bridge… I was soaked head to toe, I had mud in my boots and in my socks. I felt gravel in-between my toes… this was the worst day to be running out in the rain. 

With every second that crawled by, I ran faster and harder. But the relentless wind and rain felt like needles piercing my skin as I pushed my way forward. Instead of picking up the pace, I was slowing down with each passing second. It was like Mother Nature herself was against me… Even the ground felt like it was trying to slow me down; every step I take sinks into the wet mushy mess that used to be a dirt road. Before I even realized it, my full on sprint turned into a sluggish struggle to walk forward while fighting the powerful winds.

Logic kept on telling me to find shelter, wait out the storm… But my heart was telling me otherwise.

I knew the chances of him even remotely being near the bridge were slim to none, but there was still a small and tiny chance he was, even if it meant he was in a ten mile radius of the bridge… And that was enough for me to throw away all logic and common sense and put everything on the line…

…Funny, I'm thinking just like him now…

I was literally pushing against the wind with my hands and using them to block the bullet like rain coming at my face, but each time I even let my eyes crack open, a fat raindrop would nail me right in the eye causing me to close them again… I was running blind. And yet, each time I closed my eyes, I saw his back, and that made me chase after him even more… I wanted to reach out and turn him around and tell him everything I had ever wanted to tell him… that wasn't the only reason that kept me going, the chance that maybe, just maybe, I would be able to do it before morning… with that, I just had to keep going.

Something heavy brushed up against my shoulder with something on it prickling my skin… "A branch?"

In my poor visibility, I had completely walked off the muddy road and into the forest bumping into a low pine tree branch… Damn, if I can't see where I am going, how the hell am I going to get to the bridge in time? Maybe I should just… No. I gotta keep going…

I turned around and headed back to what I thought was the road, but the winds threatened to push me off my feet as I toward the road again. "Damn… is the weather that bad here in the land of waves?" I jokingly asked myself.

I made it back to the road, I knew because my foot sank into the mush again. Another heavy object brushed against my shoulder, only this time it scraped me and disappeared instantly. I flinched at the stinging pain… What the hell was that? Did I walk off the road again?

Another object hit me, but it was lighter and it just bumped me and it too vanished before I could see what it was. I immediately dismissed the idea of me walking off the road. I tried to open my eyes again to see what was happening… it was a rather scary sight, the branches around me were dancing like crazy, and some of them went flying into the wind along with other debris… The wind was actually so strong it wasn't just ripping off the branches off the surrounding trees and sending them flying, trees were actually uprooted and tumbling into other trees. I saw some more branches fly by me… If I'm not careful, one of them could knock me out…

I caught my bearings and headed down the road again, using my hand to block the incoming raindrops so I could see what was flying at me. It was so hard… and I was getting tired. Just walking felt like it was draining my life away, if I could barely walk… how the hell am I supposed to dodge this flying debris?

I went a couple more feet, and I stopped to catch my breath. It hurt to even take a deep breath of the frigid air, almost like I was inhaling powdered glass. But I guess there was an upside to this freezing chill, I no longer felt the stinging of the rain or the pain on my arm from that branch that hit me earlier. I lost feeling in my body and I couldn't really tell that my body was sore anymore. I couldn't even feel my teeth…

But I had to go on, numb or not… Naruto might be near the bridge and now I was even more determined to move forward… Even a fifteen mile radius of that area is fine with me now… Now I just have too…

My knees suddenly buckled and I was kneeling to the powerful winds in front of me, the winds were trying to push me down onto my back into submission. Eventually, even my arms gave up the fight too and they went limp in the wind like rags. My abs burned as I tried to keep myself upright, and I peeled my eyes open down the dirt road… the rain was hitting my eyes again, but I managed to get a good look down the road long enough. The road looked like it disappeared into the typhoon… But… The road had to end somewhere…

I forced my limp arms back into action, and put them onto the ground in front of me, feeling the nasty mud in between my fingers through my soaked gloves. I crawled two feet forward, then a couple more… and then a couple more. I dragged my knees across the mud, and they became raw in no time in the slush… But I had to keep going… I was not going to give up anymore… I wasn't… I couldn't…

I lifted my head up and looked down the path again, debris still flying at me violently… "Just a little more… I don't care if this road leads through hell… All roads have to end somewhere…" I told myself, stirring myself onward.

I continued to crawl on while talking to myself, "Just a little more… Just a little more…" I kept telling myself. While chanting these few words to myself… I felt like Naruto was over my shoulder cheering me on…

I looked up again, there was more debris, this time they were bigger and coming at me faster… luckily most of the big branches went flying inches over my head, maybe taking a hair or two with them. The rain was still stinging my eyes… but then I saw it… I had made it…

"The bridge…" I moaned, of course I didn't hear myself say it because of the gusts of winds whirl winding around me. As I looked at the wooden bridge in front of me, it was shaking and twisting in the wind like it would collapse at any moment… I just had to get across it safely, he could be on the other side…

I tried to get up from my crawling position and back onto my feet, it drained me of everything I had left, but I managed to stumble to my feet despite the hard winds pressing against me…

"Now… to cross…" I moaned again, the rain was stinging my eyes again, so I closed them briefly and imagined Naruto in this weather…"I'm coming Naruto, wait for me!" I took a step forward… and suddenly it went silent…

-

Why did it suddenly go silent? What happened to the storm?

I listened again… and it was so quiet, I don't think I remember a time as quiet as this… I thought I was standing, but I had no way to make sure I was… my body was so numb from the cold, so I could've been lying in the mud for all I knew.

I couldn't feel anything… I couldn't hear anything… I looked down, and I saw my dirty hands and body. Even though I saw them, I couldn't feel my limbs. I looked around; I was in some sort of dark world, a blank world… I looked at my fingers and wriggled them to make sure I still had motor function…

I looked up again, and I saw him, his image slowly appeared in front of me, 'Naruto…' my voice echoed.

His back was still facing me, his shoulders slumped down in a depressing manner… it hurt me to see him like that. I wanted to reach out to him… I saw my muddy hand slowly extend to his shoulder.

'Naruto…' my voice echoed again, 'Can you hear me?' I asked him as I was about to grab his shoulder.

I saw his ears perk up, and he began to slowly turn around… I froze my hand in place as if I were going to grab a venomous snake.

He turned around so slowly, it was almost creepy. Finally, I caught the corner of his eye looking at me… but something was wrong, it was different.

'Naruto?'

Without a word, he slowly turned back away from me… and he slumped his shoulders again in a deep sigh. And he began to walk away from me… Wait… wait!

'Come back!' my voice echoed. I made a grab for his shoulder, but my filthy hand was to slow to grab him, he moved a little bit forward just out of my reach… I was so close to him.

Naruto began walking away from me slowly, He was disappearing again, down into the dark horizon…

I tried to run after him... I felt myself lunging forward, but he wasn't getting any closer… he continued to walk away, 'Naruto!!! I'm sorry! I never wanted to hurt you so much!!!' I yelled still chasing after him. My voice only carried away in an echo…

"**Naruto you idiot!"** I heard a loud voice… it was coming from behind me, and it sounded very familiar.

I stopped running and glanced back to the source of the voice, but there was no one. **"Do you know why I told you not to use it so much?" **I heard the voice ask… it was… Me…

"**That technique…"** My voice said sharply, **"I told you that, because I didn't want you to use it against Sasuke-kun…"**

'No!' I yelled trying to fight against…myself. 'Don't listen to me! I don't mean that!'

I saw Naruto turn his head and look at me again with the corner of his eye,**"****Don't call me Sakura-chan… your still fucking annoying and stupid… just look at what you did to Sasuke-kun, you and that… that thing in you!"** I heard myself say to him.

'Naruto don't listen to me! I was… exhausted! I didn't know what I was saying!!' I yelled trying to overpower my rogue voice, 'Please don't listen!'

"**Because of you! I almost lost Sasuke-kun completely!"**

'No…' I murmered still trying to catch Naruto. I knew what was going to come next… and I didn't want to hear myself say it again… I didn't want to hear the reason why he ran away… I covered my ears and kept on chasing him.

"**Get out… don't come back here again…"**

I still heard myself clear as day… I wanted to choke and throw up… If only I had only heard myself that day. 'Naruto!!!'

He turned his head around again, and slowly started walking away getting smaller in the distance… I felt like going insane, I was still sprinting towards him, but he was getting further and further away instead of getting closer, I yelled at him, 'I didn't mean anything I said to you that day!!! Come back!!!' I screamed at him running. But I wasn't getting anywhere at all, I was running in a fixed position.

He was already so far away in such little time… I suddenly remembered what I told him that rainy day… 'Why do you care about what I said to you so much?!! Why do you care about a bitch like me?!!' I was getting desperate…

'You shouldn't care for someone like me!! God damnit!!' I screamed. I collapsed and gave up my fixed running. I was on my knees sobbing now, 'Why do you care about me so much? I've been hurting you for so long… Is this the result of all my abuse?!' I got back up and started after him again, I wasn't going to lose him like I lost Sasuke-kun three years ago. 'God-damnit do you hear me?!'

I began to think back to my childhood while I ran. I too was one of the children who was… "different." I was singled out as one of the freaks at school… but eventually I found a friend then another and then another. And eventually I turned into the person that always used to make fun of me, I became the very person I used to hate… I made fun of other kids including Naruto. I never treated them nicely especially to him… and even after we became a team… I still treated him wrong…

I rarely treated you nicely then too…

…He always did me favors, did just about everything I told him to do…

God damn, I was so stubborn and childish back then… Hell I still am. To yell at him like that and tell him to go away... I haven't grown up at all have I?

Even in my bitch fit, he still listened to me… he went away like I told him too.

"**Get out… don't come back here again…" **I heard myself again.

The feelings I had for Sasuke-kun… were they only skin deep? Was I really in love?

I didn't know what Love meant anymore… was Love just a feeling? How did you know if you were in love? Was it something that made you crazy over someone? Was it an instinct? Was Love something that made you do anything for someone?

Naruto… did you love me?

I tripped and fell face first onto the ground, I looked up and saw him nothing but an orange speck in the dark horizon, 'Naruto… come back…'

He was all but gone now. I was a mess, I was crying my heart out and I felt nauseous. I slowly rolled over on my side and closed my eyes… I felt like I died… Maybe I'll go to hell now, it seems like a fitting end for someone like me.

-

"Sakura?" I heard…

Naruto?

"Sakura, Wake up!" came a second voice.

Are they Angels? Am I dead?

"Come on forehead girl! You gotta wake up!" said a third voice. This one had an attitude, kinda familiar.

I felt numb and cold. Is this what it feels like to be dead?

"She's still shivering violently, Ino, Hinata give me your sleeping bags, we have to bring up her temperature… And Kiba, help me bandage her head."

Temperature? Bandage? ...What's going on?

"Come on you idiot! First you ditch us back at that town and now you have freaking pneumonia?" continued the angel with the attitude. I swear I know this voice…

"Sakura-chan, please! Wake up!" came a much more gentle voice. This one must be an angel. "We still have to find Naruto-kun!" she sounded like she was getting desperate.

I wanted to see these angels, but my eyes absolutely refused to open… It felt like somebody had glued my eyes shut, then again I am dead… right?

Maybe if I spoke to them, tell them I wanted to go to hell quickly, I can be free from this loveless and miserable world.

But all that I managed to let out was a super retarded moan. I felt my throat tremble. Definitely suited for a dead person.

"Ah she moaned! She's waking up!" yelled another angel, sounded like a guy.

…Waking up?

I cracked my heavy eyes open finally… and I was blinded by a bright light… there were four shadows floating over me… My angels?

"Who… are you?" I managed to squeak. My voice sounded terrible, and I tasted phlegm in my mouth.

"Shut it forehead girl… just rest…" said the annoying angel, only this time, she said it in a kinder and relieved tone.

I closed my heavy eyes again, "Just… take me away from this world and take me to hell…" I said as I fell asleep.

-

I felt my body again… and I really wish I didn't half because I no longer wanted to be in this world and the other half because it was in so much pain.

Everything ached, I couldn't even begin describing my situation… I swear even my fingernails were aching… I wanted something to end my misery. But, I was feeling warmer, even though I was still cold as an ice cube. A light and warm feeling smothered my body. It felt nice…

I cracked my eyes open again, this time they weren't so heavy. I was lying on my back looking up to a dark grey sky… and I felt like I was floating… "Wh-where am… I?"

"Sakura-chan! Your awake!" came a voice… the angel? Are they carrying me to hell?

A presence came soon after the voice, from my angle it looked like a shadow was staring down at me, "Sakura-chan, can you hear me? It's me, Hinata." Hinata… chan?… Her voice is so loud its hurting my head.

I wasn't dead I guess… Heh, angels… I thought they were angels… "Y-yeah…" I groaned.

I heard footsteps around me. I guess everybody was here.

"Sakura… You gave us a real scare you know?" said a voice, it was Kiba, "We really thought we were going to lose you."

I closed my eyes again, just wanting to rest so badly, "What happened?"

"You want the whole story?" came a sassy voice, this one hurt my head too, only worse… Ino. "First you leave a bum family back at our Condo, and they stink up my sleeping bag… then we realize you aren't home, and they told us you ran off to the _bridge_. We decided to wait out the storm because it was a damn typhoon out there near the land of waves… We should have come sooner though."

"Yeah…" said Kiba's voice, "We found you lying in the middle of the road half buried in the mud with a huge gash on your head…"

A gash on my head? …Oh yeah, the flying debris. One of the must have gotten me… I was careless, that must have been the reason for everything going silent… And that nightmare.

"You got lucky… surviving a direct hit on the head by a piece of wood the size of my arm. But you managed to catch pneumonia while you were unconscious." Kiba continued, "It was scary."

I heard a gentle voice sniffle, "When we saw you laying there with blood coming from your head, and you shivering violently… I thought you were going to die." said Hinata-chan continuing to sniffle a little more.

"Ya know? At the very least take care of your own problems! That hotel owner guy gave us a really hard time! He had the whole town's yakuza on our asses, which was another reason for us to leave town… And now we are camping near this damn bridge where we found you." said Ino complaining as usual.

…I sort of wish they never found me.

"Why are you guys worried about me? Naruto is around here… we… gotta… find… him…" I said feeling myself drift away again. I can't go to hell now... I had to at least do something before I do... I'm not going to give up anymore...

"Don't worry…" said Kiba, "Sasuke is already looking for him while we take you to the town… we told him to meet back at the town if anything happened."

So I'm in a makeshift stretcher… that explains my "floating" feeling. And what town?

"You should recognize this town Sakura." said Shikamaru, "You had your first mission here."

Tazuna…san? "You mean… Tazuna-san's…" I didn't have the energy to finish my own sentence as I drifted back to sleep. I just hoped that Sasuke-kun would maybe find him... I wanted to get up and look... But my physical needs were far to demanding at this point... I had to rest...

"Sakura? Hey!" I heard some my team say…

When their voices disappeared, I saw Naruto's back again… he was walking away like he did before… I darted after him. I wasn't going to give up anymore…I'm too stubborn.

* * *

any comments welcome! make sure they are nice:) 


End file.
